Sad Day

What's this? Posting another blog within a week of the last? What is going on?

Anyways, today hasn't been a good day. Jon and I were supposed to go to the river with a couple friends, and then in the middle of running errands, Jon's mom called to say that she was taking their dog Kodiak to be put down. So we cancelled our plans, finished the errands, and headed to Petaluma to be there. It really sucked seeing Jon so upset, I hate feeling so out of control. All I wanted to do was make it better, but honestly, how could I when his dog of 14 years was so old and worn out that the best thing was euthanasia? Nothing can make that feeling go away. It was really difficult to not cry, but I had to do my best to be strong for Jon in his time of need. It just sucks because his grandpa just passed away a few weeks ago, and now this. Kodiak was an awesome dog, though. I have yet to see puppy pictures, but I keep hearing he was super adorable and ridiculously fluffy, since he's a shepherd-retriever mix. Kodi liked to sit on your lap, despite the fact that he was far too large to do so. My first memory of him was a bit over a year and a half ago, and the first thing he did when we met was try to dry-hump me. Twice. I'm sad that he's gone, but he's in a better place now.

Now for some happier stuff.

Jon is now going up to Calgary the first week of July with his dad to sign a lease for a place to live, since my mom and I discovered a couple days ago just how fast places get swept up. We were seeing places available for July 1st that were already rented on June 1st. So going up the third week is definitely not looking like a good idea anymore. My parents can't come up to Calgary with us anymore, so it'll just be Jon's dad helping us with the move. I'm bummed out because I'm very close to my parents, but I understand why they can't come.

I got my new pairs of glasses yesterday, but I had to take one pair back today because one lens was chipped in two places, and both lenses were horribly placed. The other pair is perfect, so I'm just using those for now. AND I CAN FINALLY SEE PROPERLY! It's crazy to see how blurry my uncorrected vision is after wearing my new prescription all the time. And that's how I was seeing all the time, but didn't realize it because my eyes didn't have anything better to compare to.

I need to finish painting my nails before bed, so I'll leave it at that!

How Bad Am I At Blogging?

REALLY DAMN BAD.

Since my last blog entry, it's been 22 days. Nearly a month. Oye.

Anyways, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! My 22nd birthday! Oh hey, the number 22 is recurring!

Jon had to work today, no one would take his shift, so we went out for dinner and drinks last night at Stout Brothers Irish Pub with friends and my brother. Today my parents came up to the fancy house (I've got two more weeks left here) and we hung out by the pool, drank homemade pina coladas, and ate bbq'd ribs, garlic mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob with jalapeno-lime butter. There's angel food cake, whipped cream, and strawberries in the fridge, too. I also went and got a free brow wax at the Benefit brow bar in Ulta (gogo birthday specials!) and picked up a couple Sift cupcakes. I love the Berry Good Cheesecake one, and I also grabbed a 24 Carrot one. Cream cheese frosting is my nemesis!

I found low carb ice cream fudge bars at Safeway this week, a pack of six for only $3.50, so I nabbed 'em! I've been trying to eat well and drink more water. I've been bad about exercising daily, but I've gotten a few good leg workouts in through walking Bella for 2.8 miles around the neighborhood, and I've gotten in three or four swims in the last week. I feel soreness in my muscles, so at least I'm not just sitting around in front of the computer all day. I started to do ab workouts before bed a couple weeks ago, but it didn't last more than a couple days. Go me.

I had a conversation with my mom today, though, that really made me feel a lot better about my body. We looked at ourselves in the mirror in our bathing suits, and my mom pointed out all the great things going on with my body. I have strong squared shoulders, a defined waist, a set of hips and boobs, and I have a nice bit of junk in the trunk. I have a great shape to my body, and sure, I feel like I could stand to lose 20 pounds. But I needed to accept what kind of body I have, and I will never be stick thin. I have curves, and that doesn't make me any more or less of a "real" woman than anyone else. If I really feel a strong need to lose weight, I'll become motivated to do so, but at this point I need to focus on being healthier instead of being thinner.

I am excited to start using a month of gym membership at Fusion Fitness; my mom saw a deal for it on livingsocial for $9 and I nabbed one. I've got a few friends who work out there, so I'll have them help me get good use out of it.

An update on the move: my cousin Elyssa is moving from BC to Calgary to live with Jon and me. We're super excited to have a roommate who we know we can trust and get along with. I always thought that Elyssa and I would live together at some point, so I'm so happy that it's finally happening! We're looking for somewhere in the northwest quadrant, ideally close to the inner city and University of Calgary, and we need to be near transit since I'm the only one with a car. Jon's going up in July with his dad to sign a lease somewhere, that way when we move up, we have a place to move our stuff right in. The official moving date is August 18th!

There's only six days left at the daycare (sniff sniff!), and then it's summer vacation. I'm babysitting a couple of my first grade kids from the 6th-8th, which will be a nice chunk of change. I also got myself a subbing gig at the summer daycare starting in July, due to one of the employees going on maternity leave, and I'm supposedly going to be emailed about some other dates to sub. I have the candy store job still, and my last day there is going to be August 6th. Until then, I've got availability to close Sunday-Friday, since Jon and I have our Saturdays off together, and I'll probably have an extra shift or two from my usual Sundays. I'm hoping for weekly river trips!

I think that's about all that's going on in my life right now, so I'll leave it at that. (:

Free Song Download! "Save Your Breath" by Moura

 If you guys could take a listen to my good friend Evan's latest recording of his song "Save Your Breath," I would love each and every one of you forever. I know I only have two subscribers, but I know I've got more blog traffic than that, considering I've had over 1000 views, not including my own.

"Save Your Breath" by Moura

He's been working so hard on a musical project called Moura, and I've been impressed by what he's done from the get go. The song was amazing from the first recording, but this one is so complete, it blows the first one right out of the water.

Please take a listen and download it if you like it (which I think a lot of you might), and then you can follow Evan and Moura on Facebook for more updates, as the EP should be coming out very soon, from what I've heard.

SayAnythingBrooke: Brooke's Birthday Giveaway!

SayAnythingBrooke: Brooke's Birthday Giveaway!: Today (as of 4 minutes ago) is my birthday. Because I'm feeling grateful for everyone and everything I am blessed with, and because I like g...

Back From The Dead

I know, I know. It's been... ONE WEEK SINCE YOU LOOKED AT ME! Nah, kidding. But seriously, it's been three weeks since I last posted and it's bad. I haven't updated this blog as much as I should. So here goes.

I'm house sitting for two months, so I'm living away from home at the place until June 11th. This house is fancy, it has a swimming pool, hot tub, gym above the garage. It's nice. I worked out last night, and I was going to go up and do some cardio and abs, but I got distracted by giving my dry, cracked heals some love. And then I decided to give myself a manicure. Zoya Marley (pale lilac with a very faint opalescent shimmer) topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust and Seche Vite. Speaking of Zoya, I've got a bunch coming in the mail, so I'll post about those once they arrive.

I finished my second session of boot camp on the 13th. I was really bad at going every day, I maybe went half the time. Completely awful. I've also postponed the last session until after I'm done house sitting, since it's a 20+ mile round trip drive to do boot camp, and I already have to do it once a day for work, twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for band and work, and twice on Fridays for work and picking up Jon (which is another almost 40 miles round trip just to get him from Petaluma). It's tough on my gas tank. ): So until house sitting is done, I'll be going up into the gym every evening from now on after I get home from work, or I'll go swimming if it's a hot day, and that will be my form of exercise for the next month and a half. I realized that I HAVE to exercise daily, not to stay in shape, but to regulate my mood swings. I get really emotional if I don't exercise, to the point where I cry at the littlest thing. No bueno.

I'm going to start posting pictures each week again, because I found it really helped if I had something to show progress from week to week. Tomorrow my workout will have to wait until a little later, as I'm going to see a movie with my best friend Lea after work. I will restrict myself from snacking at the theatre, I'll just bring a bottle of water with me. We're going to see The Lucky One, with Zac Efron. I love being able to go see chick flicks in theatres with Lea, since Jon hates them and essentially refuses to go haha. Anyway, here's my "starting point" for the next month and a half.

I'm not working summer daycare, so it's just the candy store. I need to ask the manager how many hours I'll be guaranteed a week because it'll be my only income for June, July and the beginning of August. Until June 11th, it's just Sundays, since I can't do more while I'm house sitting.

Exciting news, I'm all done saving up my $10,000 for the move to Calgary in August! The next step is to start looking into apartment complexes and such, emailing about if there will be any openings in mid August, and setting up appointments to check the places out once Jon and I get there. We want to have somewhere to move into as soon as possible. We'd rather not stay at a hotel for a week or more, since it's a waste of money.

I just bought a new phone this evening, as my two year contract with T-Mobile (which SUCKS!) ends in a couple weeks and I need a month to month plan. I'm going through Virgin Mobile, which will give me a $35/month plan that includes 300 minutes and unlimited text and data (same as what I currently have, except I'll get 100 more minutes and pay $10 more, which I'm quite happy to do). I bought a Motorola Triumph from walmart.com for $207 after tax and shipping, and it should arrive sometime between Friday and the Wednesday after that. I'm pretty happy, considering it would have cost me about $305 if I'd bought it from the VM website or from Best Buy or something. Once it arrives, I can activate it and all that jazz. I'm so excited, it's my first smart phone. And since I intend on babying the shit out of it, I'll probably be able to get most (if not all) of the $207 back when I sell it on eBay when I move to Canada.

I need to get to bed, as it's nearly 2AM at this point (I started this entry at like 10PM haha!) and I've got house sitting duties to take care of in the morning.

New Hair!

BEFORE

AFTER

Jumping Back In The Saddle Is Hard

I don't know why, but I just didn't have the motivation to go to boot camp on Friday. I wasn't tired, I felt fine, the weather wasn't horrible. I just couldn't force myself to get out of bed. I didn't really do anything to make up for it either. I told myself I was going to, but you know how that works...

Today I walked my mom's dog, Emma, when I got home from work, so at least I got something today. I'm going to take her for another walk tomorrow morning before I go to Mill Valley for a hair appointment, since I'll be missing boot camp tomorrow as well. And then it's back to boot camp on Tuesday morning. I feel like it's pointless to say no more excuses because lately I've just been talking the talk, but not walking the walk (or running the run, or dipping the bench dip, or pushing the push up, if you will).

I don't know what happened to the girl who went to boot camp pretty much every day and kicked ass on the bench mark test (which the second one is in two weeks, yikes!). I miss that girl, because she was awesome and energetic and motivated and so many great things. I need to get back to being that girl. Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I'm hoping that after this hair cut (GOGO graduated bob hopefully done right this time!), I'll have more motivation to go work out. Maybe it'll kick start the motivation to keep working to look and feel better. Who knows.

I'll post before and after pictures of my hair in the next couple days, I'm excited to see how it turns out. (:

God Awful Start

It's Day 8 of my second session of boot camp (almost half way through), and I have attended four days. NOT GOOD. Starting today, it's no more excuses. No staying up late, because it either makes me oversleep or be so tired that I decide to skip boot camp. I need to make sure I'm eating five times a day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner) and not eat after 7PM (unless I'm going out with friends, and even then, avoid snacking) and drinking plenty of water. I have one and a half sessions left, and I want to get the most out of it that I can.

So Much For That!

So... I didn't exercise this week. At all. The weather was just shit all week long, and then finally on Saturday it clears up, after the unofficial off week boot camp is already over. I don't even know if anyone else showed up because of the rain. I totally could have worked out at the place I was house sitting at, but rainy days make you feel so unmotivated and staying in bed just felt like a better idea at the time. Meaning every morning.

But Round Two of boot camp starts tomorrow morning, so tonight I will be taking a melatonin to knock me out early, since I kind of ruined my sleep habits a bit this past week. Can't sleep in past 720, gotta have that banana and orange juice for breakfast!

LiveFit Week Four Pictures And Measurements!

FIRST OF ALL! I want to share something I am incredibly proud of. In boot camp, there are two benchmark tests on the first and last Fridays of the session. This is what we have to do in 40 minutes:

On February 17th, I got through 23 squat thrusts in 40 minutes. This Friday, March 9th, I completed the ENTIRE test in 36:36. FUCK YEAH! I never thought I would do that well, I was only hoping to get past 23 squat thrusts, to be honest. (:

Now on to business. I know I'm a couple days late on this, but here are the pictures and measurements for the end of Week Four of LiveFit Boot Camp!

Day 1Day 20

Day 1Day 20

Measurements time!!!

Bust Before: 37 inches
Bust After: 36.5 inches

Underbust Before: 30 inches
Underbust After: 30 inches

Waist Before: 31.25 inches
Waist After: 30.5 inches

Upper Hips Before: 37.5 inches
Upper Hips After: 36.75 inches

Lower Hips Before: 40.5 inches
Lower Hips After: 40 inches

Overall Inch Loss: 2.5 inches! Not too shabby! (:

I have to wait until first thing Monday morning to weight in, since I've been eating and it won't be accurate now. I'm not expecting much, if anything at all, in terms of weight loss, since I figured I'd be gaining a bit of muscle this past month. Since muscle is more dense than fat, I may weight the same even though I'm smaller. I'm getting to the point where I'm not worried about the number anymore because what actually matters is how I feel. As long as I feel healthy and happy, I'm good. (:

I also won't be taking a week off between the end of this boot camp and the start of the next. A group of us are getting together at the usual time at Howarth Park to do an unofficial off-week boot camp. So glad, because I do not want to gain back any inches in that week.

Week Three Pictures

So I ended up not going to the JC boot camp on Saturday, and instead I did some exercises at the place I was house sitting using my weights that I keep in my car. I'm feeling a bit pudgy this week, but it happens.

Day 1Day 15

Day 1Day 15

I should make a note that when I say Day 1 or Day 15, that refers to how many days I have worked out. So while Friday should have technically been Day 15, it was Day 14 because I didn't do boot camp on Thursday, and thus Saturday is Day 15 of working out.

I'll be honest, I'm scared of the week between boot camp sessions. I'm terrified that in one week, I'm going to completely screw up all of what will be four weeks of working out "M-F." I'm going to need to plan some light workouts to keep myself in the habit of working out.

I'm also a little frustrated that I haven't seen as drastic results as I was hoping at this point, but I need to remember that weight loss is harder when you don't have as much to lose, and I need to just keep up with my workouts and focus on eating as healthy as I can and drink enough water on a daily basis. I've got a 32oz refillable water bottle, so as long as I can drink one before I leave for work and drink a second before I go to bed, I think I'll be fine.

Pictures On Saturday

Because I didn't go to boot camp on Thursday, I've only completed four out of five workout days this week. To make up for it, I'm going to one at the Santa Rosa JC campus on the track at 730AM on Saturday morning. I don't want to take end of the week photos today if I haven't done my five workouts, so I'll be taking them tomorrow.

Ow Ow Ow!

Let's just say the first couple hours of getting an IUD sucks. On the bright side, no more pills and the cramping is 98% gone! I will fully admit that I whined like a baby a few times and refused to leave my heated mattress pad from 12-145PM. Couple semi-sharp feeling pokes, waves of level 8 cramping for a few hours (nothing a heating pad and Midol couldn't fix), and that was it. It's a different experience for every woman, but in all honesty, the entire experience wasn't all that bad for me. I'd gladly do it again for the peace of mind for 5-10 years (depending on which one you choose). If I find after a year that Mirena (5 years and levonorgestrol, a progestin hormone) isn't for me, I'm going to get Paragard (10 years and copper, meaning no hormones).

Note To Self

I cannot give myself a food baby anymore. I will, very literally, puke.

It's a good lesson to keep in mind for my free days (Saturdays). I've been eating really well for almost two months now, and my body is accustomed to eating proper portions and eating many small meals throughout the day, rather than 2 or 3 giant meals. I can allow myself to have a little bit of junk food on my Saturdays, or eat more carbs than I do on most days. But I can't have a frozen yogurt and candy, followed by a complete binge of baked ziti and chips with spicy nacho cheese and tri tip and caesar salad and a beer and a Coke. No bueno.

On the bright side, I ruled out being sick or having food poisoning. And now back to my regularly scheduled dieting. (:

End Of Week Two!

Week Two of LiveFit boot camp is finished! I feel amazing, and I'm noticing a difference because my pants fit better. As promised, here are the pictures for the end of this week. I've decided to put both the start picture up along with the most recent picture for comparison purposes each week.

Day 1Day 10

Day 1 Day 10

Funsies (Finally Not About Working Out!)

Yup, something NOT related to boot camp and healthy lifestyles! This is about stuff I've been doing and a mini haul of things (lots of pictures!) I've gotten recently and really like. (:

First off, I think it should be mentioned that I have a problem, and it is nail polish. I love the stuff, and by far, my favourite brand is Zoya. I've got 18 shades now, and I'm not stopping. This is one of my favourite brands to buy with my fun money paychecks, though I really try to limit myself to only buying when I will save money somehow. For example, seven of my Zoyas were $3.99 on clearance at Ulta, which puts them at half price, since they retail at $8. I'm not going to bore you with the sales on the other eleven, but my three newest Zoya beauties are:

Zoya Bevin...

...Zoya Pasha...

...and Zoya Ruby (more pinkish hued IRL)!

I haven't tried out Pasha or Ruby yet, as I just got them in the mail today, but I've never been disappointed by Zoya, so I'm sure I'll love them as much on nails as I do in the bottle.

I also got a couple glitters recently. I've been lusting over a chunky hexagonal glitter topcoat, and I got Nicole By OPI's Make U Smile from the Justin Bieber line.

I was pretty disappointed because it looks like there's a ton of the hexagonal glitter and then fine glitter in the clear base, but it's mostly base, a fair amount of fine glitter and hardly any hexagonal glitter. I'm waiting for my China Glaze Techno to arrive to see how it does instead, I've read amazing reviews, and though it's not quite the same because its hexagonal glitter is holographic, it's similar enough for me.

Another I recently bought is called China Glaze Fairy Dust, and I am in love with this. It's extremely sheer and a holographic SUPER fine glitter. I would consider it a topcoat, it's so sheer. I haven't even attempted to see how many coats it would take for opacity, though that's on my to do list.

China Glaze Fairy Dust

I tried layering Fairy Dust over Bevin, and I love the combination, from the springy semi-pastel moss green to the holographic shimmer. Definitely in the top ten favourites!

Bevin with a coat of Fairy Dust

 Different view of the glitz of Fairy Dust!

I've been hearing a ton of great things about the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeshadow pencils, and I finally decided to try this product out when I saw that the travel size set of 3 neutrals and 2 brights were on sale for $12, originally $34 for the set. Can you say steal? They also arrived today, and I am seriously diggin' these. The purple (Delinquent) is much more vibrant than the photo shows, I'm still figuring out lighting and camera settings, so Google it if you want a better swatch of the purple. They are fantastic in terms of colour payoff and lasting power. I did a rub test after a couple minutes and not a single smudge, though I did get a couple glitter particles on my finger, so I can't wait to see the magic on the eyes. I am most definitely trying these out tomorrow, they seem to make for a really easy eye look.

(Top to bottom) Clash, Sin, Juju, Rehab, and Delinquent.

And reverse order here!

I really like the 24/7 eyeliner pencils as well. I've used Zero and Whiskey before, and when I saw two full size liners in Whiskey and Flipside with a sharpener for $12 (each regularly $18, I believe), I had to grab it, and I am so glad I did. I love love LOVE my Flipside liner, best investment ever in terms of vibrant liners.

I also bought a full size tube of the Urban Decay Lip Junkie gloss in Wallflower, after receiving a deluxe sample of the shade with a past purchase. It's such a lovely, creamy pinky-nude shade. It looks like a medium brown, but again I blame the camera and lighting on that. I love the scents with all of UD's lip products, too. This one is vanilla mixed with a little mint.

I am very much an avid body modifier. I may not have a lot under my belt, but I have big plans for myself. Two and a half weeks ago, I finally checked double nostrils off of my piercings to do list, part in thanks to my wonderful boyfriend Jon who paid for more than half of the cost of the piercing as his Valentine's gift to me. Fingers crossed that I never have to remove my right nostril (viewer's left in the picture) for a job (my left nostril is two years old this summer), and septum is so easy to hide that it will never go. Ever.

I've got a couple orders from my favourite body jewelry website, www.bodyartforms.com, coming in the mail this week. One is a pre-order from Anatometal Jewelry, and it's a pair of 00ga princess cut eyelets with synthetic emeralds, synthetic sapphires, and cubic zirconium. I've also got a pair of 00ga/10mm steel sparrow plugs with that order. I'm so excited to finally be owning Anatometal jewelry, I've been wanting it for so long and I finally saved up enough to buy them for $132 at 30% off at the beginning of the month, so score for saving about $56 on them! I also ordered a pair of 00ga/10mm black horn ornate hanging jewelry that was marked at 50% off in clearance plus my extra 10% off (once you accumulate $275 in purchases, you get the perma-discount!), and I paid $14.40 for those, which is an incredible deal for horn hanging styles. I'll post pictures of both orders once they arrive, they should be here by Thursday and Friday at the latest.

I know it REALLY looks like I shop a lot, but you have to remember that I only use my allotted fun money for these things, so once I'm out of fun money, I don't get anything else. I also don't necessarily spend all of my fun money before I get more on payday from the candy store, subbing, house/pet sitting, etc. With subbing checks, though, I do put aside enough for a month of gas, and the rest is for fun. I think that's about it for now, as I've written a novel here, and I just realized how many hours before I have to be up for breakfast before boot camp.

Picture Time!

So here's my first set of pictures comparing start to finish of week 1!

Day 1 Day 5

Day 1 Day 5

It doesn't really look like much compared to the beginning of this week, but let me tell you, it FEELS a lot different.

The thing I really need to focus on is drinking enough water, I was doing really well with that while I was on Atkins, and then that week when we said FUCK IT, I stopped drinking all that water. Because I haven't been drinking enough water, I'm not seeing in my abdominal area what I saw after the first week of Atkins. I still feel squishy, and I want to get rid of that feeling.

LiveFit Day Four!

Tomorrow is day five and the end of the first week of boot camp. Holy shit! I have never felt so sore and stiff in my life. But it's that really great kind of sore, the kind that reassures me that I'm making the right decision, that I'm headed in the right direction. Tomorrow is also the benchmark day, to get an idea of where I'm at physically, what I can do.

I will fully admit that after completely letting it go last week, it's been really difficult getting back on track with eating healthy this week. It's completely my fault, though. I chose to buy the Girl Scout cookies, the jalapeno chips, the Turtle Chex Mix, the raspberries and whipped cream. I made the choice to eat 11 of the 15 Samoas today. I have no one to blame but myself, I have to hold myself accountable for the choices I have made.

Today I ate a bit better than the rest of the week, but not by much. I had an egg on toast for breakfast, tuna salad and a cheese quesadilla (could have been made better by using lower carb tortillas, but it is what it is) for lunch, five Samoas before daycare, a bunch of bite size corn dogs and grapes and orange juice at daycare snack, and then six Samoas this evening because I wasn't hungry after daycare snack. I had like 12 of those itty bitty corn dogs, they are FILLING! And so not good for me, either. Good thing we get those like once a year.

So, I restart healthy eating now, right at this moment. I was bad at drinking water all this last week, and I'm changing that by drinking a large bottle of water as we speak. It's time to start flushing out that water weight again. I have put away the Samoas and the Thin Mints where I don't see them every day. Breakfast tomorrow is going to be an egg on toast with avocado and tomato slices, something I have missed eating this week. My post workout snack will be Greek yogurt with some berries and a teaspoon of pure maple syrup. No snacks at the movies with Lea, and I'll be eating some sort of salad when we go to lunch at Hooters, hopefully with grilled chicken on it. There's no school tomorrow, so I don't have to worry about snack at the daycare, and then whatever my mom makes for dinner will be good. One day at a time, I just need to remember that.

I'm struggling on a daily basis in some aspect of this journey, and I probably always will struggle with something. But I want myself to be healthy and fit, and I'll do whatever it takes to get there.
Bottom line.

LiveFit Boot Camp: Day One

I feel great today.

I had my first day of boot camp and while it kicked my ass, I am so excited to go back tomorrow morning. Today consisted of a brief warm up that included knee-highs, butt-kickers, arm rotations, jumping jacks, and other small exercises, and then (for me) three laps around a course. Others did more than three laps, but it was more of a timed run. Then we did triplets. First set was plank, side planks, and sit ups. Second set was dumbbell bench presses with our hips elevated, flies with hips elevated, and jumping jacks. Third set was squats, lunges with weights, and cross countries. Each set was done three times before moving on to the next, and then we ended with stretches. I know my muscles are going to be stiff tomorrow, but I'll push through it the best I can.

I weighed in at 132 pounds this morning (granted, this was after breakfast and the workout). I will not be weighing in again until the end of this month's bootcamp session on March 9th.

Here are my official start photos for the next three months of boot camp:

My starting measurements are:
Bust: 37 inches
Underbust: 30 inches
Waist: 31.25 inches
Upper Hips: 37.5 inches
Lower Hips: 40.5 inches

I will do more measurements on March 9th as well.

Feelin' Good

In anticipation of boot camp starting on Monday (as a recap, not military boot camp, it's an outdoor fitness class), I've been using my exercise bike the last couple days. Yesterday I pedaled while watching Glee on Hulu Plus, this morning I pedaled while watching the series finale of Hannah Montana on Netflix (gimme a break, it's a guilty pleasure), and then tonight I pedaled to a bit over half of the D.R.U.G.S. album before dinner. I'm also rather happy with the fact that while this week has been filled with carbs and lacking a bit in water, I'm only at about 131 lbs, and less since that was what I weighed tonight about a half hour after dinner. So I've clearly lost more than just water weight! I'm even more excited for starting fresh next week now. (:

Also just ordered a chunky silver glitter topcoat nail polish I've been dying to have for some time. It was a couple bucks more on eBay than it'd cost in store, but I can't find it anywhere, so I'm sucking it up and awaiting it's arrival haha.

Also, I did my nails for a nice dinner out with Jon on Wednesday, and I wanted to show a picture of the colour I used. It's called Zoya Edyta, and it's a gorgeous blackened green with a heavy olive-gold shimmer. So vampy and pretty, one of my favourites for sure. Excuse the black area on my palm, I think my camera lens was scratched a tiny bit last summer, which sucks since it was only a couple months old at the time.

And since I'm posting pictures, I want to share a shot of my mom's cat Aodhan (pronounced Aiden) that I thought was pretty spiffy. He's a quirky little cat, a cry baby for sure (he's 1/4 Siamese), a pain in the ass, but I love him anyway.

Not A Good Week

I'll be honest, this has been a horrible week on Atkins so far. I could blame it on having a free day on Saturday, but that would be making Saturday's menu a scapegoat. I followed Atkins to the T on Sunday but didn't do a weigh in or take pictures, on Monday I went out to Olive Garden with Jon, today I had a few french fries at lunch and then a baked potato with tonight's dinner of chicken and salad, and tomorrow is dinner at Graziano's with Jon again. So not 25g of carbs per day. That, and I've been failing at starting my day at 730, a habit I really need to form for boot camp.

I've pretty much blown it this week so far, but I intend on getting back on track starting on Thursday, with a few adjustments after talking to my mom. We're branching off from Atkins a bit, and while I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not going to be finding out how many carbs my body can handle (I admit, I was really interested in that!), I will be okay with it if I'm losing fat, gaining muscle, and feeling better about my reflection in the mirror.

We're still going to be eating low carb, but not as severely as the month or two of Atkins requires. I don't think I will ever tire of scrambled eggs with cheese on top of low carb bread with avocado and tomato for breakfast, especially when we start adding in plain greek yogurt with a little bit of berries and a teaspoon of agave nectar or pure maple syrup. I will be a lot happier to add grains back into my lunch, as the thought of just tuna salad makes me want to gag. Snack will still be a protein shake at daycare and the piece of fruit for the day, and dinner will continue to be much like it has been, a protein with lots of veggies and salad. And this is something I am much more satisfied thinking about.

So yeah, I guess I'm quitting the Atkins program. But I refuse to quit eating a healthy diet that generally follows the ideals of a diabetic/Mediterranean diet, which is very much similar to Atkins Life Maintenance, almost identical. For my friend Evan, I know I promised not to give up, so I hope this is a compromise that you'd approve of.

This upcoming Monday is the start of my three month-long LiveFit boot camp sessions, and I feel that this exercise routine paired with the new diet regiment is going to be a winner. This time I promise to have weekly pictures as I do boot camp, but as I said in my last blog post, I'll only do a weigh in for Monday morning, the end of the first month, the end of the second month, and the end of the third month.

On a non-diet related note, I got my right nostril pierced finally, which I've been wanting for ages. Double nostrils has been on the to-do list for quite some time. Others on the list include both tragii (plural for tragus, but stupid spell check doesn't recognize either), my left conch, three helix flats on the left, a couple traditional helices on the right, and eventually my navel once I'm happy with my stomach. Don't get me started on tattoos, I have two shoulder pieces planned, knuckles planned (likely for once I'm retired). Those all won't come for a few years at least, lots to save up for, as well as needing the art for one shoulder piece, which won't arrive for quite a long time, due to needing offspring to produce said art.

This post is starting to get very ramble-y, so I'll let it go from here. It's just after midnight, and I really should get to bed (and force myself out at 8AM, if not 730).

Atkins Day Thirteen

I've been having a tough time this week, especially yesterday and Wednesday. I think I had too high of expectations for initial weight loss during Induction, but I needed to realize it's not going to be as drastic for someone only looking to lose 29 pounds.

I realize that I need to amp up the whole working out thing. I moved my stationary bike into my bedroom so I can use that when I'm watching tv, but that won't be necessary for long because in about a week and a half, I will be starting a three month session of LiveFit Boot Camp. The icing on the cake? It's free. I'm friends with both the owners and one approached me last night offering three months in exchange for before and after photos. Um, can I get a HELL YEAH?!

I'm going to do my last weekly weigh in this Sunday evening, and the final four weigh ins will be at the start of only the first boot camp and at the end of each month's boot camp, since there's only a week in between each session, so doing two weigh ins in a week won't do much. However, I fully intend on continuing the weekly front and side shots so I can keep track of my progress in terms of appearance.

For the first time during Induction, I went above my 20g of carbs, by about 3g or so. I don't feel guilty, I feel indulging a little won't kill me, since the worst that can happen is I'll gain back water weight and the easy fix is drinking a bunch of water and not going above the daily limit.

I am heading into my last day of Induction tomorrow and I'm excited to start bringing up my carbs, albeit gradually.

Atkins Day Twelve (morning)

Today I moved the stationary bike into my bedroom so I can sit myself on it while watching my shows on Hulu Plus via Xbox360. I currently can't use it while watching 90210 since Jon is playing video games. Not the happiest camper, but he had a rough day yesterday, what with finding out a teacher he's known for 13 years passed away, so I'm letting it go. So starting this evening after work, I'll hop on the bike and pedal for an hour, and I'll do that every night that I watch tv, which is nearly every night.

Atkins Day Eleven (Morning)

So I just weighed myself before getting into the shower and what I saw is getting me in the dumps. Since Sunday, I have gone up to 131, and I really don't think it's from muscle gain, since I did that workout with Britt on Saturday. Hearing that my mom has lost at least 7 pounds already when I've already stalled out and even gone backwards is upsetting, too.

I need to be more diligent about really drinking 64oz of water a day, and I need to be making sure that I'm exercising every day. Clearly following this diet with exercise once or twice a week is just not enough, since I have not broken it at all.

I thought I'd be further along than this. It's time to step it up.

Atkins Day Eight: Halfway There

Well, half way as of yesterday/this morning.

This morning my weight in was 130 lbs. I was a little disappointed since yesterday I was 129.5 when I weighed myself after breakfast (I need to work on not weighing myself daily, it'll only cause disappointment like today), which means I was about 129 before breakfast. But I have a feeling it was because yesterday I barely drank any water, and even though I had a good work out in the morning, it all affects this process. I'm going to make myself avoid stepping on the scale tomorrow morning before showering.

Today I have had a good amount of water, which should help get me back on track. I discovered today that adding three Crystal Light packets to a gallon jug of water really flavours it nicely without being too strong, and it helps get the water down, since plain water gets really boring after a while. It also has no carbs, which is awesome. I'm going to pick up a couple different flavours of Crystal Light tomorrow at the store, though I'm not going to rely on it every day since it does have aspartame and I don't want to consume a lot of that. I like flavouring my water with tea bags as well.

Breakfast this morning was two eggs with an ounce of shredded cheddar cheese. I love having that for breakfast, it's just so yummy, and only 2g of carbs because of egg yolks. Snack was a protein shake and lunch was a salad. Dinner is a homemade caesar salad with chopped up prawns. Mmmmm. <3

Starting weight: 134 lbs
Current weight: 130 lbs
Weight loss: 4 lbs
Weight to lose: 25 lbs

After one week:

I can already see a difference in both pictures, which is really helping my motivation. I don't see the changes day to day, but I do when comparing pictures of last Sunday to this Sunday. I've noticed that there's less chub at my waist and hips as well as on my back, and my stomach is flatter because of the lack of water weight. It's a great start, and it can only get better from here as long as I stick to the meal plan and keep exercising. (:

Finally Going For That Run

My friend Britt and I have been planning to go work out together for a few weeks now, and every time we set a time, something comes up for one of us, whether it's work, school, church, etc. We've rescheduled like three times, and today we're finally going for that run we've been talking about!

I haven't ran in a long time, and we're doing a 2-3 mile run today on the streets behind her house. Fingers crossed I don't die. (:

Atkins Day Five

I have just finished Day Five, in terms of eating. Today it was scrambled eggs and cheese for breakfast, a protein shake and a mozzarella cheese stick for snack, and then tuna salad on baby spinach for both lunch and dinner. My mom just bought these new protein drinks that are only 2g of carbohydrates and 30g of protein, whereas the ones we were drinking before were 7g of protein and 20g of protein because they were "light" shakes. Low fat means higher carbs because sugars are added to make it taste better. I like these new ones because they taste almost exactly like chocolate milk. Yummy foods make for a happy Hannah.

I weighed myself this morning (I'm going to only weigh myself on Wednesdays and Sundays starting now) and I am 130 pounds. I know that most of it is just water weight, but seeing that number go from 134 to 130 in just a few days feels great, and it makes me want to push myself to keep going.

I've let my body adjust to eating less calories and and less carbs for five days, so tomorrow I am going on a run with my friend Brittney to start burning more fat. I want to get a set of small weights to use in my bedroom when I'm watching my tv shows on Netflix and Hulu Plus. That also reminds me that I still need to see if Netflix has any yoga stuff, but if not, my mom has yoga dvds that I can use.

Today I had almost no cravings for any kind of junk food, and the cravings I did have were pretty minor and went away very quickly. I really thought this week would be harder, but it's gotten a lot easier over the last two days.

I decided to wait until I'm out of Induction to introduce pickles into my diet. I discussed it with my mom, and her biggest concern is that it's a processed food and Induction is all about cutting out processed foods. But since pickles are very much like olives in terms of processing, and we're allowed olives, we agreed that after Induction would be a better idea to incorporate small amounts of pickle into my diet. I'm going to look for low sodium ones, try a small jar and see if I like them. If so, those will be the kind I allow myself to have, and only one serving a day at most.

I did cave and allow myself sugar free chewing gum yesterday, and I've found that it hasn't negatively affected my cravings. If anything, I think it may have helped curb them, so I am officially an avid gum chewer.

I am now going to do some sit ups and push ups while watching One Tree Hill and then take it easy for the rest of the evening, drink some Sleepy Time Vanilla tea.

Atkins Induction: Day Three

As much as it REALLY sucks cutting out ALL processed food and almost all carbohydrates, I don't want to go back to it. Not yet, anyway.

The first day of Induction was really difficult, especially considering that I was working for five hours in the candy store, but I made it through and didn't cheat once, even though I had about 10g of carbohydrate leeway that day. I could have chewed some gum, which is typically sugar-free nowadays, but the label said each piece had 2g because of sugar alcohols, so I decided against it. I later found out that in calculating how many carbs you are eating, you minus the grams of fiber, sugar alcohols, and something else. So I now know that I'm free to chew gum, but I think I'm going to hold off for a few more days, just to make sure the sweetness doesn't backfire on me and make me break. Once ketosis goes into full swing, though, you can bet your ass I'll be chewing mint gum ALLLLLL DAY LONG. No thank you, ketosis breath. But each day, whilst experiencing MAJOR carb cravings (watching How I Met Your Mother episodes was excruciating; they're always eating at the bar), gets a little bit easier to get through. I'm already feeling healthier, both physically and emotionally, and I've only just begun.

I was planning on only weighing myself on Sundays, but I really wanted to know if I had lost any weight yet. Granted, I know it's pretty much just going to be water weight, but seeing a smaller number helps reinforce this.
This morning I weighed in at 132.5 pounds. 1.5 down, 27.5 to go.

Yesterday I drank a ton of water, got my entire day's worth before 2PM. Today, I'm a little behind. I've had about 3 out of 8 servings of water so far and it's almost 230PM. I'm going to stop at Safeway before heading to daycare so I can pick up one of those really big water bottles to work on for the next three hours, and then have a couple more between 6PM and bedtime.

Today's food has consisted of two eggs with one ounce of shredded cheddar and half a tomato, tuna with celery and green onion, and for snack at the daycare I'll be eating 1.5 ounces of walnuts with a small chunk of cheddar cheese and a protein shake. I may only drink about half of the protein shake, since it has 7g of carbs in it, but we'll see. This puts me at 15.5g of carbs before dinner, and I believe dinner's going to be pretty light in terms of carbs (I think we're having shredded pork roast on mixed spring greens), so that keeps me either at or below the 20g limit.

Start Of A New Chapter

Today I started the Atkins diet.

Induction lasts two weeks, where I am allowed a max of 20g of carbohydrates a day. Today I ate two scrambled eggs with one ounce of shredded cheddar cheese for breakfast. For lunch I had a can of tuna with a tablespoon of mayo and two pieces of celery. For dinner I had a serving of chicken with four brussel sprouts and four pieces of asparagus.

Tomorrow I am going to the store to pick up a big jar of dill pickles, some slices pepperoni, non-sugar cured beef jerky, pork rinds, sugar free jello cups, one of those Brita water bottles with a built in filter, and a couple filter replacements. I am really excited about this.

I'm 34 pounds heavier than I was in my senior year of high school, and enough is enough. I'm always tired and moody. I'm incredibly unhappy with how my body looks. Because Induction is so drastically different from what I'm used to eating, I have to take it easy with exercise. Starting tomorrow I am switching it up between walking on the treadmill, doing some light weights, and yoga. Speaking of yoga, I need to see if Netflix has any yoga stuff on instant streaming.

I am taking before, during, and after pictures of my progress, along with a weekly weigh in on Sundays.

Starting weight: 134 pounds
Goal weight: 105 pounds
Weight to lose: 29 pounds