Friday Five: Last Friday of Summer

(I used the Rhonna Designs app on my iPhone to make this pic. I used this picture I took from my recent visit to Santa Cruz Boardwalk).

1.  This is my last Friday of summer vacation. 😦  This time next Friday I’ll be at a “Welcome Back” meeting for the start of the new school year for our first teacher workday.  My plan for the day is to spend it the way I’ve spent the entire summer – a combo of fitness and fun.  Fitness: a session on my home elliptical, walking the dogs with my dad, and swimming some laps. Fun: a bit of shopping (just took advantage of Victoria Secret’s most recent email offer), reading poolside, and a possible date later tonight.

2. This week has been a very social one, getting together with lots of friends that I’ve known since high school, which I’ve loved.  That’s one of the huge distinctions between my life now and my life before I lost all the weight.  I was always a social, extroverted person, but I often felt a bit depressed about the way I looked. Not to mention the clothing issue – I always tried to look my best, but nothing ever fit the way it should’ve.  I can’t count the number of times I turned down an invitation or made some excuse just so that I wouldn’t have to deal with all of that.  Now, I have tons of clothes in the closet that look great and make me feel fantastic.  Now, I am happy and excited when someone suggests going out.  I’m actually getting teary-eyed thinking about what a huge switch this is.  Just one more thing to be so grateful for about this new life.

3. I’ve been getting into Instagram a lot this summer, as you can tell by my feed on the right.  I post daily check-ins for my workouts and lots of pics of other things that just strike my fancy.  While I’ve been off, it’s been easy and really fun. This month I’m participating in three different photo-a-day contests, and I’m hoping I can keep up with them once school starts. If you haven’t joined a photo-a-day contest, I righly recommend them…maybe not just three in one month.  Still, the contests are a great way for me to stay focused on fitness, get motivated, and inspire myself and others with all the photos.

One is for the TIU community,

one is hosted by @MoxieFitchick,

and the third is the Active Living Challenge with Fit Approach and Lorna Jane Active.

4. In anticipation of the school year starting in about a week, I spent a good portion of the day yesterday mapping out my school year workout plans in my iCal.  Since I have a morning prep period on my B days (which means I can get to school a bit later than normal) I’m going to fit in early morning fitness classes at the gym several times a week.  The live Insanity class that I tried a few weeks ago is now offered Tuesday mornings at 5:45am, and I’ll be there whenever Tuesday is a B day.  I’m also going to spinning at least once a week at 5:45am.  I’m still undecided about what I’ll do on my A days, when I need to leave my house by 7am.  Towards the end of last year I was waking up at 4:30am to do a morning workout, but that is just SO early.  Although it’s not ideal, I think I may go back to afternoon workouts on A days, because I really did enjoy them and they’re a great way to relieve the stress of the day.

5. Kandis, one of the TIUgirls, mentioned a week or two ago that she had started reading Gabrielle Bernstein’s May Cause Miracles.  Who doesn’t want “subtle shifts for radical change and unlimited happiness” right? The reviews and general internet buzz about the book was so positive that I thought I’d give it a try.  Have you read it?  What are your thoughts?  What book are you reading right now? Let me know in the comments.

That’s my Friday Five – I’m off to enjoy some pool time.

Happy Friday! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, full of fun and exciting adventures.

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Friday Five: Spring Break

I’ve been enjoying this week off to the fullest! It’s been a nice combination of getting in workouts, seeing friends, getting just a bit of grading done, and going here and there. Fun stuff!

1. Yesterday Ani, my sis, and I took our pups to the beach and had the most amazing day. If you’d like to see more gorgeous pics, and read a bit more about it, you can check out the post I wrote on Sofi’s blog.

2. TinkerBell made a good point the other day, when she said that she bought a cotton maxi dress to come home from the hospital in after WLS. Because we’ll be feeling sore and bloated, and the 5 laproscopic incisions will be sensitive, a lightweight and easy-to-wear maxi is ideal. Only I don’t have one. After checking on LaneBryant.com and being appalled that they were charging $59.99-$89.99, I went on Target.com and found these dresses for $21.99 each:

Why spend a lot of money on something that won’t fit me for long anyway?

3.Have you seen the great giveaway Kenlie has going on over at AlltheWeigh? I entered, and if you workout at a gym and need a small solution for your essentials, you should, too.

Kenlie’s photo

4.  I’m excited for a much-need pedi that I have scheduled for later today.  I think I’m going with a fun turquoise, like For Audrey by China Glaze.

5. And finally, I’ll close with a great quote that I saw on FitApproach’s FB page:

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The Dawn of Super Bellina…Or, My Fitness AHA Moment

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am really excited that I was asked by FitApproach (@fitapproach) to become one of their Sweat Pink Ambassadors (#sweatpink), because one of the perks is being able to contribute to their site.  One of my first “assignments” was to write about My Fitness AHA Moment, and I really enjoyed reflecting on how I got to where I am today. This post is going to run concurrently with the one on their site. 

Growing up, I was not what you would consider active.  When my sister and I “played outside” it usually involved setting up a tea party for our dolls where our “crumpets” were Cheerios.  🙂  But I loved to ride my bike, swing on the swing set in our backyard, and I could roller skate like nobody’s business.  I never had a penchant for group sports, we only had gym class once a week (I went to Catholic school and we didn’t have the same PE requirements), and I spent my recess sharing secrets with my best friend, rather than playing dodgeball.  When we did have to run the mile each year, I dreaded it, especially the span that took us right past my house, knowing I would be at the back of the pack, and hoping none of my neighbors would see me struggling.  I remember going way out of my comfort zone and trying out for volleyball in 6th grade, encouraged by my mom’s tales of how much fun she had playing volleyball in school, and hoping that her killer serve was somehow inherited.  I was cut after the first day of tryouts, and that was the end of my sports-playing career.

At my all-girls high school I was only required to take 2 semesters of PE, and I chose aerobics both times (this was the late 80’s, think Jane Fonda in all her leotarded glory).  I loved every minute of it, especially the music: my teacher let us bring in songs from our favorite bands, as long as they met the required beats per minute.  On weekends and in the summer I remember riding my bike all over the place with my friends, because none of us were old enough to drive.  In March of my senior year I knew it was time to get serious and try to lose some weight – I thought I was huge at 172 lbs (oh, how I’d love to weigh that now), and I joined Jenny Craig.  I knew that I had to exercise in addition to restricting my diet, and so I started walking.  One day I set off, and just kept walking and walking and walking.  My mom started to worry about me because I’d been gone so long, and when we drove the route later to see how far I’d gone, I realized that I had walked 5.3 miles.  And it felt easy, because I had my Walkman to keep me company.  Walking helped me work out whatever was on my mind; a little escape from the so-called troubles of my teenage life.

Early in my college days, I joined a local gym, and I remember feeling really proud when the step aerobics teacher told me what natural rhythm I had.  I could grapevine with the best of them!  I never really liked going to the gym for the weights or the treadmill, but I loved taking those step classes. It was so nice to get the recognition in a class full of skinnies.

And now at 40, I’ve come to realize that exercise makes me feel amazing. I can’t help but smile my way through a challenging Zumba class, because the music makes me happy.  I find my center while getting zen in a Bikram yoga class.  I enjoy the weightless calm I achieve when I swim.  I love the sense of accomplishment I feel when I see that I’ve done a 5K on the elliptical machine.  I’m a natural, swaying my hips to the Middle Eastern beats in a belly dancing class.  When I take my dog Sofi for a walk, I get to live in the moment along with her, and soak in all that I have to be thankful for – the great neighborhood I live in, the sun shining on my face, the beautiful houses I’m seeing.  Mostly, I’ve come to realize that despite the fact that I’m considered morbidly obese on any doctor’s report or BMI chart, I am an active person.

I thrive on variety and am constantly looking forward to trying new forms of exercise, like that Saturday Aqua Zumba class I was excited to try a few weeks ago.  I’m willing to give anything a try once, despite my size.  Most of the time the limitations are only in my mind, and those times that I do find a physical limitation only serve as a future “to do” on my Fitness Bucket List.  Exercise is a form of expression, it’s an outlet for stress, it’s a release. Through movement, I can become the person I’ve always known I am inside. 

Fitness is a way of life and I look forward to each new stride I can make, each new height I can reach, each new obstacle I can overcome along my weight loss journey. It’s one of the reasons that I had a graphic designer draw up a superhero cape on my fitness avatar – every time I workout and do something I’ve never done before, I feel like I’ve found a bit more of my superpower that was inside me all along.

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