Twilight Zone Marathons rock

So I logged on earlier with the intention of just giving a brief update on what's been happening and to of course go overboard with my happy for the tv show that makes all the random fireworks tolerable today.  Except when I got to my page things looked off.  Turns out Photobucket, who clearly is tired of giving away things for free, had replaced a few of my hosting images with one of their own saying that I needed to "update" my account in order to restore them.  So I click over to the site and look for something to update and there's squat.  I at that point am getting annoyed and start doing some searching before going directly to the website the image referenced.  In order to keep using the images as I had been the previous few years this blog has been active I would have to upgrade not update my account.  And that upgrade wasn't going to come cheap.  I had to be willing to shell out at least 40 bucks a month, or 400 annually woo two months free, to keep my links active in the way they had been.  Most of my images of my hair and stuff I upload directly to blogger so thankfully I wasn't losing a ton of stuff there but my divider bar, signature and a few things in the side bar were MIA.  I just had done some digging about other images and remembered I could embed the images in this site and just did that but then had to edit the HTML code.  Many cut and pastes, a random error that I had to look on how to fix and many saves to be safe and the page is mostly restored.  Some of the image tags for different posts will be absent until I go in to fix them but the page itself is good.

The Last Time I Checked I only Had One Butt

I legit don't have a witty or appropriate title so I went with a line from the last movie I saw: Lego Batman.  If you haven't seen it you definitely should it's quite funny and actually much less kid oriented than you'd think considering it's made of Legos lol.  Okay so got lots of updates and I will try to get to them as I can.  I haven't posted since December and yeah I was borderline depressed post election and ensuing foolishness that was on the horizon.  I took a quick trip to London which was amazing.  So far the hotel I was staying at is home to the best pizza I've ever ingested and I was sad to leave it an ocean away from me.  They also had a Belgian chocolate pudding (chocolat pot) that was oh my goodness.  And breakfast was quite tasty as well.  Of course I took photos cause that's what we do now.  The pudding is covered in homemade whip cream, berries and with chocolate straws but not straws cause there was no way to even begin to suck anything through them without looking entirely stupid.

Ok enough with the food porn because while I was there I walked around a bit and actually got in a legit workout which was good too.  Cute couple to chat with on the way out.  Not as much on the way back but I did have the row to myself which was nice.  Since I've been back it's been one thing after another derailing both my time and my psyche some days but I realized a few days ago that it's been a whole year since I chopped off my relaxed hair and embraced natural life for good.  Well with the plan of it being for good because yeah I wasn't sure how my hair would grow or what it would be like and all that.  It's been in twists cause I'm super lazy and can admit to being a little self conscious about the tiny fro because shrinkage is a bitch. 

So I am going to share some photos of this whole last few months.  The first up is a photo of me in London with the fresh twists.  Then there's a collage of pictures.  First up is immediately after take down of the twists--I was feeling very much like a member of the Lion King.  Second is the morning after where I just rolled my untwisted hair around soft foam rollers.  Third is post detangling and the final one is just showing a little bit of the stretch.  Cause yeah shrinkage.

Now finally in my random updates, at least concerning my hair, is a year comparison.  I'm not sure if I look grayer in the second photo because I've developed more gray hair or because there's just more of it but here we go.  . 

So yeah my hair grows and it gets thick.  Moving through the detangling and take down process this time wore me out.  That's a good thing of course cause that means hair is growing but damn not sure what I'm going to do.  I feel like I lost less hair this time but there is still more work to do there.  Like taking down my edges faster and getting them redone cause they take more stress than the rest of my hair.  Staying more focused on moisturizing all of my hair.  I took them down this weekend because it felt like my roots were just screaming for moisture even though I had been tending to them as much as possible.  The length of my hair though was soft and pretty well moisturized.  Winning.  And star members this installation were Jane Carter Solutions products in particular Slumber Party.  I just bought a ton of new products from her and will be updating you as I use them.  Wash day worked better with DevaCurl products as my hair felt clean with no tangles.  The Kinky Curly products were where the tangles came in and came with a vengeance.  I took my time after my deep condition to move through most of the tangles with my fingers but then coated my hair with my products and did something I haven't done in a long while: 3 comb detangle.  Oh my gosh it still works lol.  And here we are with the hair. 

In terms of working out it's been abysmal for months now.  My visit to the doctor to make sure my girly bits were still where they should be lol reminded me that while I'm still not back at the formerly scary weight that I need to get it back together and actually utilize the service I'm paying for.  GYM GYM GYM.  I gotta do better.

How is life with you?

Operation Serena Fine Update

As I was looking for photos to compare my current shape with my former shape I was reminded yet again that I really don't take a lot of photos of myself.  I've mentioned the scale and I are battling in that it doesn't move much no matter how good I am with my food or diligent I am with the working out.  That's frustrating to be sure but whenever I send a random photo to a friend of something unrelated or a former student or colleague sees me I get a resounding you look great or you look way smaller.  One or two of them might be biased but probably not all of them.  I'm sure you're wondering what all that has to do with this post and I can understand that as well.  I don't mention #operationserenafine all the time because it just doesn't cross my mind to most days.  But in light of my finally taking a photos and total win related to this whole process it's time for an update.

So you can see my body transforming more here than I noticed on a day to day basis.  The top left photo is me and one of my line sisters in early 2013.  I was in town for a job interview and we had a good time out at dinner.  She is partially who made me get off my butt and say screw it let's do this.  The top right photo is late 2013.  If I have any from 2014 I can't find those bastards but as adorable as I am in said photo I was way too heavy for my frame.  The bottom left photo is me in January of 2015.  Smaller yes but I look kind of frumpy to me and still rounder than I'd like.  The bottom right photo is a few days ago, maybe a week.  I hadn't realized that my stomach looks different, my neck and chin look different and I'm standing straighter.  Gray hair still in effect but yeah different body.  Here's a shot of that without the collage.

I'm not done by any means, there's still weight to lose and muscles to tone but yeah I'm enjoying the journey and even with the crazy scale battles it's worth taking better care of myself.  I just took part in one of those we'll pay you to participate health screens at work and all my numbers were much better than when I did it two years ago.  All except my blood pressure which seems to spike to all hell at the doctor's office and no where else.  I'll still follow up with the doctor about that though.  Oh and I have to thank whoever thought of and chose to market the Mio Drops for flavoring your water.  I haven't ever really been a big soda drinker and after I abandoned most juices because of the sugar content I migrated over to a V8 option thinking it would be a great alternative.  That is until I met with a nutritionist who said it was full of sugar and calories and I needed to find a plan B or C maybe.  That mostly left water and if you know me you know I super hate water.  It hydrates yes but it tastes like absolutely nothing which isn't helpful.  I know it's supposed to taste like nothing but if you want me to keep drinking it then I need something to make it more interesting.  I spent six months at least on the Crystal Light is everything bandwagon, probably over a year, and if you can avoid the lemonade flavors and that horrible aftertaste then yeah they were decent but they were only in packets and just not making me happy.  I tried Hawaiian Punch drops as well as Minute Maid drops and while they took care of the flat taste they were not stocked regularly and not terribly cheap.  Enter the product that I am now using and just scored a great price on.

There's no weird aftertaste.  The size and shape of the bottle means it can easily go into a bag or my pocket as needed.  They have a bunch of varieties and you need to test each one to figure out how much of a squeeze you legit need for the bottle of water you are drinking because some are stronger in flavor than others.  I remember a lemonade with them as well that also had a weird aftertaste so I think it's something about lemonade flavors in general.  Overall, I love most of the ones I've tried except the energy ones.  Good God those are nasty.  Mio is most definitely not cheap which sucks.  Around here it ranges between $3.29 to 4.69 for a bottle.  The store I frequent the most has random sales on it that knocks the price down to $2.69.  During those sales upon occasion they have a buy six save a dollar on each which knocks them down to $1.69 each for every six you buy.  And because both Mio and the store want me to keep buying them I get coupons to save $1.50 for every four I buy each time I buy a few.  So yesterday I grabbed all my coupons (4 for savings of 6 bucks) and grabbed 18 bottles to make sure that I got my $1.69 deal on all of them.  So before coupons the total was 30.42 for 18.  Knock it down to 24.42 after coupons.  Now divide that by 18 and the product that is normally $3.29 just became $1.35 or so per bottle which is normally enough for me to flavor eight 24 ounce bottles of water. 

Seriously Sleepy Sunday

Things have been crazy around here as of late.  Well no more crazy than normal really but it's been keeping me too busy to do much of anything.  I have made it to the gym more days than I haven't and only missed one workout this past week which puts me one workout off my goal of getting to the gym 150 times (or at a minimum three times a week) this year.  If I stick to the plan then it will be closer to the 170 range but I'm not holding my breath that life won't interrupt or like Friday I'll just be so exhausted that I come home midday, fall asleep for several hours, get up and cook and then go back to bed a few hours after eating.  I got back into the swing of things yesterday though after spending the vast majority of the day cleaning up and throwing away things that were never going to be read or used.  I also packed up a rolling suitcase of things I said oh this would be good for this or that class but keep tossing into a pile that never makes it to my office.  They will be on my bookshelf and off the floor tout suite.  All in all, busy as the day is long isn't throwing off my routine too much thankfully it's just making me tired as heck.

Off tangent and potentially TMI for those of you that don't want to know about my workout routine but I have noticed something the last month or so when I go in for my workout.  I normally sweat in my scalp which is super annoying and why those dri wick bands from Goody were such a Godsend when I found them through influenster a few years ago.  Can't find those damn things to save my life now and they are hard to rock with the twists but I'm off tangent.  So I am used to sweating in my scalp and it's just the drawback of trying to be healthy.  Well the rest of me is periodically drenched in sweat as I workout.  It gets progressively worse until I hit the elliptical at which point it's like girl will you take a shower please.  Thankfully I have the treadmill time after it because while I'm still moving the treadmills are all under giant overhead fans so I'm at least mildly dry before I put on a jacket and head out to my car.  This matters on a few levels for me other than my workouts are clearly having the desired effect and I'm staying super hydrated so yeah for that too BUT and here's the problem.  It's killing my sports bra game.  Good sports bras are not cheap especially if you are on the busty side of things.  My favorite red one just got damaged while I was doing laundry and as I can't get it in that size anymore I'm super pissed and now have to remember to always wash them in a lingerie bag.  I'm having to wash them more because no matter the routine I come home and those things are wet for a while.  I ordered a few last night and was happy that I had a 25 percent off coupon.  Now that my red one has been limited by the broken hook I need to get one more to make it through a week of working out without having to rewash all the bras I own lol.

Ahh well, those are the breaks right?  How is life treating you?

Operation Serena Fine Saturdays

Life is always funnier than I could script it I promise.  I unveiled the gray locks at work on Thursday and everyone is super loving them.  But as I was preparing to go the gym yesterday I stumbled on a twist that I had either managed to untwist without being remotely aware of it, or damaging the hair lol, or that had been overlooked in the Glory Be we're done with this child's thick hair moment that always happens at the end of my hair braiding sessions.  I went over to the shop after stopping by my office to do a few grown up things and hug on adorable child lol.  I showed one of the braiders the loose twist and was ready to wait a few minutes to have it done.  She got to work within a few minutes and instead of just handling one twist she went through my entire head to make sure no other little friends had been lost in the shuffle.  That one clearly not finished twist that brought me to the shop had at least five unfinished friends buried in various spots.  She was none too pleased with the person that had done my hair Wednesday afternoon, and who was standing right next to us,and told her so repeatedly lol.  Fifteen minutes later I was back on the road and ran by the one shop in town that has Xpression braiding hair.  I had asked her to find it in the M51 color I'm wearing and she said she'd get it for me.  Well she got M51 but it's a funky brand and off texture that after playing with this hair is not going in my head.  I'm having a tete et tete with Ebonyline who says they have the hair in stock but haven't updated the website.  I don't want to order a different color with a note to send me the right color because that depends on folks paying attention to notes and not the ordered product.  Either way I will get some more of that hair to at least get through one more install but if possible I will get enough to get through the rest of the year.

Ok back into the original purpose of this post.  Fitness Fridays are not happening for me.  Not because I'm not working out on Fridays but because I'm too brain dead to actually post on Fridays plus I normally have at least one more workout scheduled for the week which is today (Saturday in case you're reading this on another day lol).  Now I may not always get there but it's definitely scheduled.  Operation Serena Fine began as the year kicked off.  I promised myself that I'd get to the gym more regularly and consistently.  I have a goal of getting to the gym at least 150 times this year which means on average at least three times a week.  I have four workouts scheduled but yeah that's depending on life and what not.  I made it to all four scheduled workouts this week.  Well I moved the Wednesday visit to Thursday because of the hair escapade but other than that it was a good workout week.  Good mix of cardio and weights and woo movements that make my body stretch and bend and get more stable.  And I have done this consistently enough for the last month or so that I'm not ridiculously sore today.  I may be tomorrow unless I add in a gym visit but right now all is well.  I do need to find a snack so I don't overeat later but it's been a great day and OpSerenaFine is going well.  The scale and I are not friends lol but nothing is fitting quite right and it's not snug so go there stupid scale.

Hope you have had a good workout week folks.  See ya soon.

Snowstorms and Sweat

This will be another somewhat random post.  I have been super sick, then ok, then kinda sick and okayish again.  Add into all of that another of those lovely skin flare ups and it has been a rough few weeks.  I only made it to the gym once last week due to just being ridiculously off my butt sick which I'm sure is partially what led to the stress related flare.  This week I managed to get into the gym three times but had to skip a day as the skin condition was at its absolute worse.  I need to make sure I get there at least three times next week otherwise I'm sure I'll be off pace for that 150 workouts for the year goal I've set.  Of course I can step it up in other months and tend to go nuts in the last few weeks of the year but I want to be well balanced this year if I can.  Now if the snow holds off for my area for a few more days all will be well in that effort.  So far we've only had one or two snow dumps and outside of the cold that came with them nothing has been major. 

How goes life where you are?

Fitness Friday Weekend Again

Yeah I know this is late but there's a good reason for that.  I was trying to psych myself up to make sure I made it to the gym today and go figure I did.  I came back renewed and energized from my vacation and my new found spiritual awakening--ok that sounds pretentious but energy is too mild--said it's time to get focused on getting and staying healthy.  I wanted to get in two more workouts before the end of the year so that I'd hit 100 and I did that on Wednesday. I figured what the hey let's shoot for one more and got one in on Thursday too which set me at 101 for 2015.  Two more than 2014 so not dramatic but all the same some improvement.  As I had done so well I was considering skipping Friday but the gym was open and I was bored so in I went for an oldie but goodie combination of 30 minute express, 12 minute abs and a bit of time on one of the bikes before I made it home.  And today I went in for a scheduled workout as part of Operation: Get Serena Fine.  It was a great workout.  Loved it.  That's five workouts for this week in case you were trying to keep track lol.  Here's a photo of me post workout.  And now I'm going to enjoy my Sunday of prep and sleep lol oh and getting ready to go back to work.

Fifty Million Shades of Gray

I promise this isn't a post about that horrific book and from what I hear that mildly but not really sexual movie.  So I got my hair twisted.  As usual it's a godsend.  Somewhat atypical I am doing a better job of using the moisturizing spray and leave in conditioner on the length of my hair like Gina Marie mentioned in a video not too long ago.  Now that I have recommitted to getting my 100 workouts in this year, not having to toy with my hair is much appreciated.  I am six away from that for those who are wondering.  But as is also usual the gray hair that stays mostly hidden for a week or so is like yeah chick I'm back.  I know it's not likely that the braid shop keeps it in stock and not wanting them to order a bunch just for me I went looking for gray braiding hair.  Go figure that was trendy this year for some reason.  Edgy and different to purposely dye your hair gray instead of letting nature do it to you slowly over a prolonged period of time I get it.  I think it's weird but I get it lol.  There seem to be no shortage of braiding hair brands and options online.  I know what I'm Looking for in terms of color but what I'm finding is there is no standard gray.

There's a gray and black ombre.  If the color pattern was flipped it might be okay but not my favorite look.

There's what looks to be a medium gray as well but it seems too dark for my hair which is closer to white than a straight gray.

There is also a mix but I can only find that on Amazon and one local store and the hair felt like crap so I left it there.  The look is cute on the blogger (SimplyGorgeousNic) that I saw but the hair isn't local.  Random aside: as I went to check out the blog to properly give her credit she's raving about the hair so I trolled a few videos and found it at BNG hair.  I may have completed my search, we'll see.

And then there's just plain old white which seems way too drastic for my hair and face even though my hair has begun to abandon all pigment like an evil little color sucking troll camped out and went to town.

Blah, all in an effort to blend my hair into the braids better I'm on the great gray braiding hair hunt.  Here's a photo of me shortly after they were installed.

And one from a few days ago I think.

It was clearly sloppy pull back day.  But it works and I like them so much more than the last time I had them done. I greatly appreciate one of the stylists well not two in the shop that do my hair because they pay attention and they work quickly without being weird or eating in my ear---I seriously cannot explain how much I seriously hate that.

So what do you think of gray/silver/white braids?  I'm excited about the possibility even though I think it will just confuse people more.  The woman at the braid shop thought I wanted the silver hair to be cute until she saw my damn near white hair and said my hair doesn't match my face and I look much younger.  I'll take it, especially less than a week from my next birthday but the gray hair has been my friend since I was twelve, so a long damn time lol.

Updates and Apologies..again

Howdy all,

not sure who is still stopping by because I have been lackluster at best at updating this blog as of late but I did want to pop in today to share a few new things.  For one I am back on track with my trainer.  While I will mourn FitOrbit's easy to use platform, things have mostly transitioned well with my trainer Elizabeth on the new platform (TotalCoaching).  Much like FitOrbit you have to find the right person and price point for you.  The TotalCoaching app is actually working and while on my phone I can't log my meals super easily (or at all--if you know how to do this let me know lol) tracking the workouts is super easy and it has animated videos for 99 percent of them so that if I was confused on how an exercise should look I don't have to waste time searching on youtube to figure out what my body should be doing.  That doesn't mean I nail them all but I'm trying.  I was pretty good on food but getting better there.  And the last two weeks I actually made it to the gym three and four times respectively.  It feels great when I'm there even though my weight is going up and down.  I am consistently forty pounds down but there's a weird flux of those other ten pounds I shed that may just have been lax gym time.  Who knows but I am working on getting it all back off again.  Odder still, even though my scale and I are perpetually fighting my clothes and I are doing another tango.  There are days when all of my size 14 things feel too flipping big and then a day or so later things are good to go again.  And then the size 8/10 workout pants I bought to prep for the winter shed (none of the workout pants I like are actually available mid winter when I might be losing weight so I bought them early) legitimately fit and aren't snug.  It's seriously bizarre in my closet right now.

So now that you have been thoroughly brought up to date here's something else I've been debating.  As I noted in my last post I haven't relaxed since the end of June and my nifty Senegalese twists are making it so that I mostly don't care about that.  Which led me to think maybe I'm super done with the relaxer movement right now.  My hair loves me and I've been mean to it lol.  My stylist before the move kept encouraging me to go natural because my new growth was cute curly, I imagine like my nieces' hair because I never paid much attention to her and just encouraged the new dose of creamy crack .  When I take these down I'll be around 20 or 22 weeks post I think and I can either relax and see what my hair looks like nearly half a year with no relaxer, I can texlax but that's not high on my list, or I can commit to transitioning at this stage.  I am leaning towards the later to be honest.  There has been some sort of chemical on my hair since I was 11 and I would like to see if my hair can get past my shoulders again and be healthy.  No one seems to have a major issue with that, because of course I have asked many a friend and family member about that.  The issue, if there is one, is if I should just cut off the relaxed hair and start fresh--still protective styling with twists or something--or if I should just learn how to do the two step hair dance.  There are pros and cons to each for me so I would love to know your thoughts about moving out of the relaxer phase of my life.  Since I've embraced all of this change and wellness and new experiences for my life prior to turning 40, this seems like it could be another positive change but I'm of course anxious and wondering what to do first.

So if you've made it this far, I'm going to ask for your thoughts in the comments but also include a poll if I can figure out how to put it back in here lol.  Hope all is well with you and as life begins to slow down I will try to get back here more often.

You can vote once a day if you really want to lol and you can pick more than one answer during each vote.

What should I do with my hair?

Keep relaxing with the long stretches

Keep relaxing but don't stretch past 16 weeks

Nix the relaxer and chop it off

Nix the relaxer and grow it out first

Something else entirely

Poll Maker

Fitness Friday: New Routine!

I have been sporadic again I know.  So have my workout routines.  I don't think I've updated that number along the side in a minute.  Damn I should do that.  Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post my weight has been hovering in the almost 50 pounds last range for weeks.  Part of that due to stress and not hitting the gym as much as I could be it felt like I was plateauing a bit.  I mentioned it to my trainer and we are switching it all up.  Today was my first day of the rebooted routine and I LOVED it.  One or two moves I need to perfect and I need to get used to actually jogging instead of just walking briskly.  Tried it today and both impressed and disappointed myself.  I haven't run in a long time for more than a few seconds so improvement there but I actually made it through three cycles of my walk, jog, sprint cardio time before my body said no mas.  We're going to tweak a few things and head back at it.  I'm a happy girl who is excited to get back in sweat mode.  Yippee and I signed up for tennis lessons so hopefully that doesn't you know kill me or more aware of how limited my sports skills are lol.  How are you doing?

Major Updates: Slim Down & Tied Up

So the hair post part of this update.  I am one week post heading towards two.  I was tired of trying to figure out what to do with my hair so I went ahead and got it braided up before I changed my mind again.  Now in every way that is recommended not to do I've nailed a lot of them on this braid pursuit depending on who you look to for advice.  I got my braids early post relaxer and they are on the small side but not crazy tiny.  On the upside it's not human hair (again depending on who you talk to) so it's holding the look better and isn't super heavy on my hair.  And other than a bit of itching I didn't have any headaches or pains post braiding.  Now it's hard to get adjusted all this hair when I'm doing minor things but the gym movement has been good so far.  Granted that's only been two workouts but I'm not doing the puffy hair pat down right now and that kinda rocks.  I got some more braid spray and some braid shampoo today and we're going to see if we can get to at least the two month mark with the braids.  I'm not against a potential touch up if needed.  If my hair enjoys it and feels healthier then I'll get them again before my big summer trip.  So my hair updates will be a little different for a while.  Here's a photo of the new do.

Now the other update that may be just as big or little as the case may be lol.  I have lost almost 50 pounds now.  I'm about a pound way from claiming that milestone and will probably do a dance of joy when it happens.  The biggest part of that is none of my clothes are fitting or were fitting so I had to finally go try on new clothes.  I grabbed jeans the next size down and realized it was too big.  Same thing with the tops I tried on.  After a moment of disbelief I realized I am in size 14 everything lol.  I finally took a photo of myself and yeah it's not the body I used to have at all.  Still happy and glad to be moving forward but yeah I haven't seen this body since probably the 90s.  Here's a photo of that as well.

How goes your pursuit of healthy hair and bodies ladies?

Saturday Summary of Fitness Friday

So I've been light weight MIA the last few weeks.  After recovering from being sick I had a ton of stuff to do at work so the gym didn't happen.  I finally got off my lazy behind (ok not totally lazy) after my two week down time amounted to a two pound weight gain.  Given that has not happened prior to this month I'll take it but it made me unhappy.  This is my first week trying the tweaked workouts that Elizabeth gave me and they kicked my butt, Monday most of all because it was a lot of alternating weight work which takes a while for my brain to catch up to and process correctly.  Over the course of the week the weight has fallen off which means the gain was solely because my behind didn't go get my sweat on.  I was able to stick to my diet easily enough despite being sick so yeah even when I'm in maintenance mode I need to make the gym life my life otherwise I'll be packing the pounds back on.  Which leads to a different conversation.

My body is smaller than four months ago of course and it's reshaping a bit as well.  My clothes are also now too flipping big.  The sweaters are beginning to look like tents and the jeans just depend on the cut but there's more room in most of them around the waist than should be allowed.  No big deal right I'm sure I have some smaller ones here and turns out no I don't.  I've been in the same weight class as it were for so long that I have jeans that are bigger than my current size but not a single solitary pair smaller.  So I have got to start adding to the smaller girl collection just like with my workout gear and unmentionables.  This may be a TMI moment so skip it if you want but I've always enjoyed my breasts even if shopping for bras could feel like I was going bankrupt.  So I was a little apprehensive about going in for a new set because I was worried about how much I had shrunk.  I honestly had no idea I just knew my bras were not fitting well anymore.  I explain the situation to the fitter who measures me up and says yeah smaller band but no smaller cup.  That seemed unlikely but I tried on the new bra and it was like I had found a new friend.  I was also a little perplexed on the cup size not shifting but for the moment I'll take it.  I'm down two sizes in the panty range as well so now I have all of these oversized things in that arena as well.  I plan on donating the jeans and clothes that aren't too beat up.  Underwear I'll dump cause yeah no but can you donate gently worn bras?  The ones that I wore a lot are just going to have to be made into something else or dumped.

Last bit of information or update for today.  I have totally abandoned my Polar F7 watch.  It worked for like a nanosecond on Monday and then kept giving me the check the heart rate monitor error.  As I have gotten smaller the thing is just glitchy as hell.  My Fitbit is still on preorder so for the next month I'm just going to work out without all the tech you know like before when we didn't know those things existed or that we needed to track those things lol.  Ok I think I'm done rambling for now.  Gotta go update the sidebar. 

Anyway how goes your fitness goals?

P.S.  I keep saying I'm going to share one of my dinners and haven't done so.  So here is last night's very delicious dinner.  It's another meal from my trainer.  Mustard Salmon, brown rice and lemon roasted asparagus.

February Final Thoughts: All Things Fitness (& Food)

This past month was all kinds of bad for working out.  Yes I squeezed ten workouts in and yes I made a point of taking the stairs instead of elevators but I could have done much more.  Between the weather, stress at work and a basic major project hangover it was my not my most stellar month ever.  When I was there it was fantastic and I was amazed at how my body keeps changing.  My workout clothes that used to be snug are loose or too big entirely.  I'm at the point that I may have to adjust the band on my heart rate monitor again cause it's a little slack when I'm working out as of late.  And I have gone from actively avoiding the elliptical machine to spending forty minutes or more on it whenever I hop on that bad boy.  I'm within a half pound of one my bucket list items--lose forty pounds.  That may or may not happen this week but you know what I'm ok with that.  The weight doesn't have to pour off of me each week.  I'm not gaining weight and I'm losing at least five pounds each month which is what brings us to now.

It has felt like forever since I have lost more than five pounds and kept it off so this is a new experience for me.  While other people are noticing the weight loss when they see me for me I'm not seeing major changes anywhere except my belly which is shrinking, it's not flat but shrinking.  I've opted to upgrade the fitness watch as I think I mentioned in a previous post so it's just a matter of waiting until my plum Fitbit Charge HR is delivered.

As I finished my second bottle of water this morning I was amazed at my shift from water is disgusting to that is pretty much all I drink especially when I have my Mio or Minute Maid drops.  I'm not overeating and I'm not overindulging when I do have a cookie or brownie or something at work.  I'm committed to doing the food thing healthy now and can eyeball a good serving size and do check calories on things I'm buying.  I am by default counting calories because of my meal plan but I've been surprised about how not hungry I am eating a more balanced diet than the bored and ridiculous amount of food I was eating before.  And as my trainer has noted I'm still eating foods I like I'm just not making them in a way that would kill me and I'm not eating them to excess.  Time for a snack then beef kabobs and a baked potato for dinner tonight.

Gotta stick with it.  I will be pinup cute dang it.  More than that though I'm happy that I am not continuing to allow my body to be out of control just because I feel helpless to change it.  It's changing, slowly but surely.  I actually slid into a pair of my old size 18 Lane Bryant jeans on Friday and they were comfortable with a little give.  My other jeans are way too big now and if I don't wear a belt they would be in super saggy mode.  I haven't put on my dress pants as of late cause it's really freaking cold.  But I tend to be in at least one size smaller dress pants than jeans so whenever I brave the size 16s to see if they fit I will let you know.  I'm worried they will be too big.  The pants I loved from LB used to have belt loops, these do not which is just stupid.   How is the working it out going in your direction?

Fitness Friday: Updates & Upgrades

I am still getting my shrinking behind to the gym on a mostly regular basis.  January was a little spottier than I wanted but February has started off well so far.  I hit all the planned workouts for the week except swimming which got pulled because my instructor is still ill.  For the moment that means next week I'll get up and hit yoga then the gym and back to real life.  That does mean I need to work on my annual report before Saturday but I'm hoping to nail that down by Friday evening.  The workouts themselves are getting more interesting.  Not because they are hard but because of things I'm noticing later.  I mean they aren't easy but my body is hitting wave two of the weight loss process I guess.  I'm noticing my abs and behind in particular are much sorer after each work out.  A friend is saying the muscles are getting used again after shedding some weight.  That could be true but it's definitely different.  There are still a good mix of cardio and weights and stretches built in.  When I get tired I take it easier but I haven't had to cut any workouts short in months.  And now that I think about it that was at the very beginning when my body was surprised I was still trying to push it.  So really no abbreviated workouts since early November.

I've had to start buying smaller workout clothes a well because the original stuff is way too big.  The new stuff is slightly too big but I don't want things clinging to me while I'm sticky.  I need to find some longer shirts and matching sets more.  I like the idea of Fabletics but clingy isn't cute and they rarely had things in my size as it was.  Long sleeves always make me feel better but they aren't a sticking point.  I am on the lookout though so if you see anything in the 14/16 range let me know.  Wow even typing that is weird having been in the 18/20 range for quite some time now.

And after more than a year with my Polar FT7 I'm about to let it rest peacefully as soon as my new fitness band arrives.  In case you were wondering why I'll be happy to tell you.  Before I got smaller the band and heart rate monitor seemed to find an easy spot on my chest to rest and measure what it needed to.  After adjusting the band and being a bit more active it seems a little psychotic if I'm honest.  Most of the time the heart rate is fine but suddenly without any explanation it jumps up to 221 or something similar on the wearable monitor.  I notice this more on the cardio machines than just walking around but it can happen on both.  The reason I know it's off is when I grab the sensors on the cardio machines it stays in the right range so it's really the HR monitor on my body that is going nuts.  So I decided to upgrade after talking to my tech consultant, i.e. my younger brother who gets all the stuff way before I do, and I am moving over to the Fitbit Charge HR.  One because I can get one that's purple and who doesn't love purple lol.  And two because there is no band to wear and hope it's adjusted properly.  This measures heart rate at the wrist and is worn most of the time--no pool or shower, so it's not something you have to remember to put on to get the right measure.  If I forget the band for the Polar all I'm really doing is clocking time because it can't do much more without it.  Only problem with my purple (officially labeled as plum) fitbit charge HR is that they are in the preorder stage at the moment.  I measured my wrist and at 7 inches it would have been a snug fit in the large band which only goes up to 7.6 inches.  I'm getting the XL to be safe since my wrist does not seem to be subject to the same weight loss issues as the rest of my body lol.  Here's a look at it:

So how goes workouts in your land?

First Friday: Fitness on Tap

I actually forgot that the gym was open yesterday but it wouldn't have mattered because Thursday is my off day. I was semi-dreading going today because I was convinced the Resolutioners would be there en masse and causing confusing. Turns out I was wrong on both counts. It may pick up soon but for right now my anticipated gym times seem to be quite clear.  As I was winding down for my last bit of cardio, I spoke with a cute older woman named Holly.  She was in the gym for the first time and the machine was confusing her.  Four minutes later she was up and running and tinkering with the machine to better account for her pacemaker.  I'm sure the Resolutioners will take over eventually but today was a good work out.

FItness Friday: Sweaty Saturday Summary

So my Fitness Friday post is late again this week.  I did hit the gym as scheduled this week so now I'm three workouts away from 100 for the year.  Much as like last year though, the vast majority of them came at the end of the year when my brain and body finally said enough damn it.  I'm still learning my body and what works and what hurts and instead of just plugging along at something I'm not interested in doing I'm speaking up and making changes as needed.  My trainer is helping immensely and I'm figuring out that some of my old food wasn't so bad as long as it's not a daily kind of thing. Next week it's homemade pizza time--I'll try to take a photo, actually that's tomorrow so yeah I'll try to take a photo before I slice it up.  I had pot roast for Christmas and last night, I'll probably have that again tonight instead of a twice baked potato.  I do like potatoes but yeah not in the mood for one today.  That is something I have noticed over the last few months.  Even food that I love can either feel too heavy or just not what I'm craving.  Thankfully there's a lot of flexibility in the meal plan so I don't ever get too far off calorie count.  Trying to balance the dairy and protein and what not is a challenge some days but it's better than it used to be.  I'm not going to claim it at this point but it looks like I'm back on the losing end of things again after a week of flat weight loss.  If it holds I'll be down 25 pounds since I started this whole reboot two months ago.

I did just find out that my yoga class is moving to the same time as my swim lesson so I'm going to have to figure out when to sneak it in during the week.  Yoga this morning was different cause we had a new instructor for the day.  I got in a good sweat which is always nice but I really liked having yoga then scooting down the stairs to swim.  Ahh we'll see. 

Oh and I had a doh moment at the gym this week.  Remember I'd been having trouble with my heart rate monitor.  The readings would be all over the place like the sensor was losing its mind.  Well I was washing my hands and trying to get the sensor to read normally when the band came unhooked--again.  Why this didn't occur to me before I really can't say but I have NEVER tinkered with the band ever since I bought it.  I've been losing and gaining the same 10-15 pounds over the last year until recently.  There is actually less of me to wrap around so I had to make the band tighter.  Yeah for tangible proof of weight loss but damn that was an easy fix that had I just thought of earlier I might not have been checking out other fitness bands.

How goes the sweaty life for all of you?

Fitness Fridays: Food and Flexibilty

So it's Friday and it's time for an update.  I have to say December has been the best gym month period so far.  I went to the gym three time this week and will keep up my two workouts tomorrow even though swim class is over until mid January.  Yoga and back to Planet Fitness.  That will make 14 workouts in 20 days.  That will pull me up to 92 for the year with 11 days to go for the year.  Considering when the holidays actually fall I MIGHT make it to 100 but they weren't as consistent during the early part of the year.  There's definitely been an uptick since I hired my trainer which is good cause I would seriously feel like an ass to paying someone to get me in shape and then not following through.  I am losing weight so that's good.  Just as I was thinking I was hitting a weird plateau with the working out and weight loss I got my new plan for next week and two new workouts are in play.  I get to test some new stuff out and see how that goes.  It's a good week to test it out since there's no work and I am expecting a light gym crowd since Christmas is next Thursday.  We'll see but I'm excited.  I'm starting to hate my Polar fitness watch.  It is glitching out or I have a heart murmur.  I don't think I would have missed the second one as much as I have been to the doctor as of late.  Some days it's perfectly fine, others it's always recalibrating to read the heart sensor.  I've changed both batteries recently but I know when it doesn't register that correctly it doesn't register the calorie burn correctly either.  I'm going to keep working out regardless but I'm wondering if it's time to upgrade my tracker.  And my right calf is a little sore today but I think I must be putting more pressure on that leg during workouts.  I'm sure it will feel better in the morning when I get to do this.

Part of that is also making sure I eat properly.  I didn't lose as much weight last week because I was hitting the bread again.  The sandwiches were within my calorie count for the meals in question but yeah bread hasn't really been on the menu.  We'll see how the next weigh in goes but I did want to share some of the most recent meals I've had that have kept me happily fed and staying on track.  These were taken with my camera phone so yeah sorry the quality isn't better.  The top dish is Cajun spiced salmon (I LOVE salmon), a side of corn and chicken flavored brown rice.  My recipe for the night included asparagus but I didn't have any so I switched in corn instead.  The second dish is seriously one of my new favorite meals.  It's a beef stir fry with red and green onions, ginger, garlic and a few other things.  The original recipe called for pineapple chunks and juice but both of those make me unhappy lol.  I nixed the pineapple and use orange juice instead.  Still has the citrus tang and has a wonderful overall flavor and smell while it's cooking.  It's served on brown rice and is the bomb.  Working on portion control is just amazing.  I'm not as hungry as I used to be and I'm not snacking to fill time.  I do get snacks but they are planned out and things I want.

All right I'm done for the day.  What's up with you ladies?

Pre Birthday Updates

So I am now on countdown to my 39th birthday.  I'm not sure what I thought I'd be doing at 39 but I can almost assure you my current life isn't it.  That's a good thing though as I am genuinely enjoying my life right now.  Are there things that need to be improved on?  Well most assuredly but I also have the passion and drive to continue to improve.  The best part about being nearly 39 though is that next year, God willing, I'll be 40.  If things keep going the way they are going it will be the best birthday ever but then again I'm making plans to make sure every birthday gets that distinction.  Just because this is more of an introspective post about lots of things not just my hair I'm going to insert a page break here.  If you don't want to go any further not a huge deal as I tend to be wordy sometimes.  Just know that I'm in a good place and enjoying life.  If you are nosy and got time to kill continue after the break.

Hair Updates & Other Stuff

So if you track my hair and weight loss updates you will see the numbers have been adjusted in both cases. I will get to the weight loss piece in a second but let's start with my hair. My poor tired hair.  I wasn't bone straight when I left the salon a month ago.  I was going to roll with that since my plan post this round of swim classes was to be braided or weaved up and try to enjoy some stress free time with my hair as the temperature continued to be crazy.  However, 10 days later after swim class you wouldn't have known I had a relaxer at all.  Now don't get me wrong my hair is never bone straight after swim class.  I don't expect it to be.  The level of tangles and knots though was ridiculous.  I thought maybe it was a one week fluke but nope there were more of them this week after swim class as well.

That's also why I haven't taken that many photos of this travesty.  I do have some to share today of working through wash day but without some serious heat my hair is going to be fluffy.  I have considered doing a corrective relaxer after swim classes end next Saturday (the 13th) but haven't decided for sure.  I'm also thinking about just going with braids.  I'm worried about what that would do to my hair and that could mean I'm in a styling chair on my birthday instead of relaxing which is what  I would like to be doing.  And this will be the most shocking.  I've even considered doing it myself because I'm tired of haphazardness with who does my hair, how they do it and what happens post relaxer since I know what my hair should feel like and the last two relaxers it has definitely not gotten there.  Input please oh and if you use Affirm Fiberguard relaxer where do you get it.  Can't buy it on their website and not sure about Amazon.  On the upside I was able to roll my hair without looking at a mirror and keep it symmetrical the entire time.  Photos in order: hair loss, rollered up and a pseudo close up of nothing resembling straight roots.

I am nursing my hair right now.  Keeping my ends tucked away as much as I can.  I'm moisturizing daily at the moment and resuming my vitamins.  Soon enough I hope to see some progress.

As for the weight loss, can we just say that is rocking right along.  I'm down almost 15 pounds since Nov 2 when I started training with Elizabeth.  I'm not eating much more/less than before but pulling that together with the working out at the same time has been stellar.  As of today, I'm 28 workouts past last year.  I may not hit 100 like I wanted but at least it won't be flat and barely equaling last year.  Even going out to eat I'm being more cautious and while I've had a day of less than stellar snacks it hasn't derailed my progress.  My pants are getting a little roomier which is different but now I need to grab my belt and make it work.  Even though no one believes me when I say it I'm still over 200 pounds and that's not good for a number of reasons.  My target goal right now is to hit 180 and see what I feel like.  I don't envision going too much smaller but maybe I'll become one of those goofy fitness nuts.  How goes life around your neck of the woods?  Yoga, swimming, gym rats anyone?