Zumba!!!!!!!!!!!

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, this past week, I decided to branch out of my gym and kickboxing rut and try something new. For the past couple of years, every other month, I would go to the website of a local Dallas dance/pilates studio (www.movestudio.com) and browse through their list of classes thinking I would some day join. Well, last week, I did that and noticed that they had a one week trial for unlimted classes at $15 for the whole week and icing on cake, they also had a Zumba class. Now I'd tried Zumba once before but did not particularly enjoy it. It was held in a small martial arts gym with navy blue carpets in the exercise room. Seriously, who exercises on carpet? It lacked a lot of energy and so while I got a good workout, I wasn't particularly interested in going back.

Well, when I saw this studio had a Zumba class, I decided to check it out. If you haven't already heard about Zumba, it's a cardio dance routine that combines latin, reggae, hip hop, etc dance with fun, funky music. Check out this link for an example:



SO, last Sunday, I signed up for the one week trial and went to the studio. It was a calm, quiet, really zen studio which I immediately felt comfy in. This particular zumba class was held by a first time teacher. She said it would be a non-verbal class so we basically had to follow her cues which took some getting used to, particularly since she was sometimes off beat and my body was trying to do its own thing, but overall, I got an awesome workout and left sweaty and sore.

On Tuesday, I tried another Zumba class held by another instructor with a coworker I convinced to join me. That was mega fun. The music was great, she threw in some country line dancing, reggae, jive, etc, and her movements were spot on with the music so I will definately keep going back to that. Then on Thursday, I went for what was described as a Cardio Latin dance class which was taught by this big, burly man who immediately told us the dancing was modeled after Arthur Murray's dance classes. Needless to say, I spent the whole hour spinning around in circles trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. My coworker and I decided we didn't care too much for that one. It was very ballroomish and wasn't what I was looking for. Silver lining: I still got a good workout(and a few dizzy spells) just from trying to keep up.

Afterwards, on our way out, we noticed a hip-hop class ending. It looked like a lot of fun and my friend and I decided to stay for the next class which was hip-hop level 2. Whew! We were already sore and tired but decided to milk our one week trial. That class was HARD! It was highly choreographed and the tiny a$$ instructor wanted us doing floor work. At one point, I had the class cracking up because I told her I had to get off the floor piece by piece, not bouncing off it like she was doing. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who couldn't get on and off the floor like a limber teenage street dancer so she modified the moves. By the time we left that night at 9:30pm, all either of us wanted to do was go home, shower and sleep!!!!

So, I've decided to stick to just the Zumba. I'll go twice a week on Tuesdays and Sundays. The classes are incredibly pricey but they are worth the extra workout and fun. After all, if I was to hire a personal trainer, I'd be paying at least $50/session and with this, I'm paying about $11/class so... I'm frugal(read: cheap) but I will just have to blindly go into this one and keep telling myself that the end justifies the means.

Anyone else try Zumba? What are your thoughts?

Till next time,
XoXo

Lara

Back after a small hiatus...

Behold! Your prodigal blogger is back! I didn't go anywhere, my mind has just been in a million different places and trying to chill out enough to gather my thoughts has proven quite difficult. But, the good thing about having a blog is that it calls and nags at you till you finally sit down and put down all those posts you've had swimming in your head. SO, here I am.

The past two weeks have been interesting, weight wise. My weight has fluctuated around 230 lbs. I have been gaining and losing the same couple of pounds every other day. I've seen 228, 229 and 230, and 232 on the scale. My WW weight last week was 230lbs. The week before, it was 232 lbs. Yesterday, I went over to a friends and had a couple of drinks, some chips, gumbo and crab legs. The food was great but far saltier than I've grown accustomed to. This morning, the scale registered at 232 lbs. I know a lot of it is water retention so I'm attemping to combat that today before my weigh-in tomorrow. I also had sushi on Friday at a sushi buffet(all you can eat) so needless to say, I've been doing tons of salt lately.

I've also been in and out of tracking. I've gotten better about it but by Wednesday usually, I start slipping. Personally, for me, I know I have only one of two choices when it comes to whether or not I'll lose weight: I either have to track religiously or cook my own food. If I eat out and don't track, I'm in deep doodoo. So which is it going to be, Lara?

Anyway, I've also tried a few new things exercise wise. I'll write more about them in my next post.

Ciao!

Lara

Exhaling...

The heavens must have heard my pleas...Today, I woke up feeling lighter so I decided to take a chance and weigh on my home scale. It registered 228.5lbs, 0.9 lbs less than it did yesterday. I don't know if it's just "noise" but I will take it because I don't think I've seen that number years!

I have no explanation for it. I haven't worked out since Saturday due to my wonky back but I was deliberate with my food yesterday. Even though I ate out, I pre-planned.

Here is a quick summary:

Breakfast - Oatmeal with a peach, a few walnuts and brown sugar
Lunch - Taco Bueno, two chicken soft tacos and 1/2 a cup of mexican rice. I ate one taco for lunch and the rice and the other a few hours later when I started feeling hungrier.
Dinner - Chick-Fil-A, Chargrilled Chicken and Fruit salad(I love this salad) with spicy dressing.

Now, yesterday, I got hungrier quicker than I have in the past month or so, so I think that's a clear indication that my portions have been out of control again which will explain the ups and downs in my weight loss. BTW, I went on this website:
Dottie's Weight Loss Zone to find out the points values of the fast foods I was going to eat. It made the decision making process so much easier because had I not, I would have consumed a lot more.

So here's to the powerful magic of TRACKING and CONSCIOUSNESS where food is concerned. My battle now lies in keeping this momentum and not seeing the number go up, and also working to bring it down even further.

Ciao ya'll.

Lara

And now, a word on MOTIVATION

Since I'm needing a boost in motivation, I'm trying to read and watch as much as I can about weight loss to help me regain the mental fortitude to keep the faith and stay in the battle.

Over the weekend, I was able to catch a rerun of a show called XXX-Weight loss, or something like that. Sounds sketchy but it was basically featuring people who'd lost about 100 lbs or more naturally. The three X's come from the fact that they used unconventional methods to lose the weight - one man biked across the country, another one lady ran marathons, another took up belly dancing and switched to organic foods. For all of them, they made radical changes in order to fight the weight.

Here is another great success story I ran into over the weekend. I watched her YouTube videos over the weekend and while she wasn't saying anything I didn't already know, just seeing her results really started to get my mind moving again in the direction of radical change.

Check her out:


This begs the question: "What radical change am I willing to make to get this weight off?"

XoXo

Lara

Weigh-In Mondays - Big, FAT, Goose Egg!!

Yes, it's been a week since I last wrote anything.
I'm not sure why, but my level of motivation has sort of deteriorated over the past week. I still managed to get in three good workouts last week but my eating SUCKED! No tracking, no monitoring, no real attention to anything, just plenty of eating out and slacking off.

So it's no wonder that at the weigh-in today, I had lost exactly 0lbs. Since I'm trying to change my thought process regarding my weight and weight loss, I'll pull the silver lining out of this one: I didn't gain anything either. I stayed exactly the same - 229.4lbs. Down to the 0.4 lbs.

I felt a bit bad, there were a lot of celebrations this week and I would love to get another 5 lb star. 20 lbs is eluding me... Or I'm eluding it with my lack of consistent dedication to anything other than exercise.

To make matters worse, I jacked up my back somehow. I'm going to try to run tomorrow but I probably shouldn't. I just don't like being inactive and I'm scared the laziness will start to seep in again.

Anyway, that's my largely unmotivating story today. I have to find a way out of this rut!

Bah humbug....

Lara

Weigh-In Mondays

What? What's happening? I'm actually writing about my weigh-in with WW on a Monday? Wow? Wonders never cease! :-) Maybe I've finally conquered my procastination...NOT!!!

I'm happy. I went down 1LB from last week. It's not a miraculous amount of weight, but any trend downwards is a miracle. I'm thrilled. 1LB really does make a world of difference to me in my face, in how much I can do when I work out, in how my clothes fit. Just think, that's 4 sticks of butter I dropped over the course of a week!

Thinking of it in those terms really does make a world of difference!!!

Goal for this week is a 1.5 - 2.0lb loss!

Happy losing!!!

P.S, I lost four of those sticks of butter in the image above, yay!
Lara

Treadmill Vs. Track

Happy Sunday, all!
I hope the weekend has been great. Mine has been very relaxing, simply because except for my Saturday kickboxing class, I have deliberately done nothing else. I don't know why but I just love doing nothing on weekends, it helps me relax, regroup, and re-energize.

Anyway, last week, for the first time since I really started this weight loss journey and my running program, I took my run outside to the track. It was on Thursday and I woke up feeling like I just couldn't face the treadmill. The ennui of running in place at the gym while my staring at news shows I can't hear because I have some reggae/soca blasting in my ear just did not seem appealing to me.

So, even though it was cloudy and slightly drizzling, I decided to experiment with the track. I expected it to be hella hard because the treadmill does provide some assistance with running. If it gets too hard, you can hold on to the hand rails and you also don't have to make adjustments for curves on the track or wind resistance or the insane Texas heat we've been experiencing. Surprisingly, I was able to complete a workout similar to my treadmill work out. I am not sure why. I think most of it was sheer mental fortitude because the proud side of me did not want to be outdone by the outdoors, but also, I think having to bear my own weight with no assistance forced me to pace myself in ways I typically wouldn't on the treadmill.

So, on the track, I did a 0.25 mile walking warm up, a 2 mile run and 0.25 mile cool down. Some observations: I felt a lot more tired outside than I do running inside. The next day, my joints "hurt" more than they typically would. I wasn't in pain, or anything but I definitely could tell the difference. I'm going to continue to run on the track. It's a much softer surface than concrete but I think I get a much better workout than the treadmill. Plus I feel more at peace with nature, more spiritually grounded when I'm outside in the breeze.

I'm going to try this program out that I found on the Women's Health website:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/intermediate-running-weightloss-program

It's an intermediate running plan and I think I'm ready to kick it up a notch.

Wish me luck!

P.S, Oh to look like that runner above. Not the cartoon, sillies!
Lara