Things I’ve learned this decade…

Looking back on the past 9-10 years, I’ve learned a lot about fitness, nutrition and being healthy.  I’ve had my ups and downs.  Here’s a glimpse of one thing I’ve learned every year throughout the 2000′s:

2000: Your first job can pile on the pounds and only you can decide whether you’ve hit rock bottom or not.

2001: Losing weight is about a lifestyle change, not about dieting.

2002: When you look good, you feel good! 

2003: Relationships do not have to equal putting on weight.

2004: When getting dental surgery, it’s not okay to eat as much ice cream as you want…

2005: Being in a bad relationship hinders self-esteem.

2006: Ending a bad relationship can help jump-start weight loss and build your self-esteem.

2007: It’s okay to wear a mini skirt after the age of 30, as long as you feel comfortable in it and look good!

2008: I let a dental surgery be the excuse for weight gain… not good and never again!

2009: Losing weight has made me a stronger person, both physically and mentally.

The holiday aftermath

Christmas is over and the new year is slowly sneaking up on us.  You know, it’s funny what we do to ourselves as a society during the holidays: we eat, eat and eat before Christmas and on Christmas day, then we expect everyone to feel hot and squeeze into a little black dress.  Why would we do this to ourselves?!  It’s ridiculous.  I have to admit that over the past few days, I’ve enjoyed my mom’s home cooked meals and her cookies as well, however, I’m not feeling that great about myself right now.  I’m trying not to be hard on myself.  Granted, I didn’t make a pig out of myself during the holidays, but I didn’t eat all that well.  I’m going back to boxing tomorrow and back to my good eating habits.  That’s the only thing you can do.  When you fall off the wagon, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back on it.  That’s all there needs to be done.  When I got home today, I got rid of all the treats that I received over the past couple of weeks.  If they’re not in the house, then I won’t eat it.  In a few days, we’ll be starting a new decade.  New decade, new goals.  A couple of my goals this year is to better myself as an instructor and to finally get to see my abs!  Here’s to new goals!

A Poll Just for Fun!

So what’s your main goal for the new year?  Click on one of the following choices or insert your own answer!

The holidays are not an excuse to slack off

During the holidays, most people take a break from their daily routine.  Some are on vacation and feel that because it’s the holidays, that means they need to take a break from working out and eating right.  This shouldn’t be an excuse to slack off on your regular workout routine and eating nutritious food.  It’s important to stay active during this time of year to avoid putting on the holiday pounds.  Just think if you keep your regular routine, come January, you’ll be looking fabulous while most people around you are complaining about the 5-10 extra pounds they’ve put on over Christmas time.  That doesn’t mean you have to barricade yourself in a gym!  Just do some fun stuff (think of what you liked to do as a kid): go skating, snowshoeing, sliding, skiing, snowboarding, going for a walk and admiring the pretty lights and the winter scenery.  It’s never too late to get back on track!  I know that for me, this weekend was a “cheat weekend” instead of a “cheat day”.  Instead of beating myself up for it (and making crazy promises to myself about not having the right to eat anymore junk over the holidays), I’m just going to keep working out.  I’m going to boxing tonight and hitting the gym with S. tomorrow.  I’m going to try to eat healthy (with the exception of some treats here and there) and not overdo it.  It’s all about moderation.

In 10 days, I’ll be celebrating my first year anniversary of my weight loss journey.  If someone would’ve told me a year ago that I would look and feel like I do now, I wouldn’t believe them.  What a difference!  Last year, I felt overweight, unhealthy and always tried to hide my body with clothes that I deemed flattering (hence the reaction of most people, “I never thought you were fat!”).  Now, I feel strong, healthy, beautiful and happy.  You’ll hear people say that being “skinny” (in my eyes, the word should be “healthy”) won’t make you happy, but I have to say that it sure does help a person get through life a lot easier!  For one, I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to wear.  I don’t have to worry that I can’t open a jar or shovel my yard – being in shape makes those things a lot easier.  And lastly, as unfair as it is (depending on who you ask), people generally treat you better.  I know, that’s not the way life should be, but it’s a reality we all face as humans.  We can’t help it.  They say, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but in our appearance-driven world, it sure can help when you look good.  Hopefully then people will see who you truly are, underneath it all.  Bottom line, when you look better, you feel better.  When you feel better, you feel like nothing can stop you from accomplishing your goals. 

In a little more than a week, we’ll be entering a new decade.  It’s time to set new goals (I hate the words “New Year Resolution”) and I have to set some new goals for myself.  Of course, the constant one is to maintain my new weight.  I have to start thinking about what my main goal will be for next year.  Time to start thinking about yours!

Tough week, but I’m not going to be tough on myself!

This was my last week of school until Christmas vacation.  It was a tough one because you know what it’s like around the holidays: food everywhere!  Students bringing me chocolates, cookies and other fun stuff.  With all of the junk food circulating around the school, it’s hard to say no in the face of temptation.  So, instead of depriving myself, I decided to allow myself to indulge.  I did it in moderation, mind you.  But I just worked out harder this week. 

In fact, I’ve updated my slideshow and added a picture of myself taken this morning.  I have to say that I’m proud of my accomplishment!  I’m where I want to be.  2009 was a great year for me, fitness-wise and 2010 will be even better!  check out my slideshow!

http://www.slide.com/r/wCquEglU5D_N5dVh_vztemxKY-VYUeFw?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Check out my Slide Show!

Another 1/2 inch lost!

It’s been a busy past couple of weeks at work!  I’ve been preparing for our school’s Nutcracker production with after school dance practices.  On Thursday, I went to buy some material for the kids’ costumes.  I knew I had to bring my measuring tape to measure my girls for their costumes.  As I took it out of my drawer that morning, I thought I would measure myself just for fun.  To my surprise, I’ve lost another half-inch off my waist!  I was pretty excited!  When I measured some of my grade 3-4-5 girls, I realized that I have almost the same measurements as me!  haha! 

We received some snow this week – unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to cancel school, but we now have some snow on the ground, which makes the holiday season so much more exciting!  The storm was predicted to start late Wednesday afternoon.  I wasn’t going to take my chances and wait around until 6pm to go to boxing, so I went to the gym instead.  I hadn’t been there since this summer (and that was mostly running outside around the base with S.)!  I didn’t get into a long workout since the snow started coming down about 40 minutes after I got there.  It’s interesting how I haven’t been working out as hard lately, but I was asked yesterday if I’ve been losing more weight by a colleague of mine.  She told me that I look like I’ve lost more weight.  I reassured her that I haven’t been working out more or anything and that I’m not trying to lose any more weight.  It’s interesting how that happens.  Sometimes when you’re busy with life, the weight just drops.  Not a bad thing!

Couldn’t Believe My Eyes…

Things have been so crazy at work lately, especially with the Christmas concert coming up, that I haven’t even had time to update my blog!  Between work, teaching dance after school, boxing, teaching boxercise, hip hop class and teaching dance cluster, I’m lucky if I have a minute to relax!  On top of that, I’ve been going to physio for my neck.  I had a little mishap in October (nothing serious) and started getting headaches in November.  Physio and massage therapy has been helping.  So because of this, I can’t spar for a while, but I can still box.  Don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t box! 

Moving on to explain the title of my blog…  I went shopping today.  I went into Smart Set (it wasn’t one of the usual places I could shop last year, when I was 25 lbs heavier) and saw this cute skirt, but they didn’t have my size.  So, just for fun, I thought I would try on the smallest size they had on the rack.  To my surprise, it fit!!!  The skirt is a size 0!!!  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  Never in my wildest dream did I ever think I’d be able to fit into a size 0.  Now, I realize that in the past 10 years, sizes have changed.  Blah, blah, blah.  Nonetheless, it’s quite a feeling to be in a piece that says “0″ on the label!!!  Goal definitely achieved!

Amazing how perception works…

So I skipped boxing last Wednesday because of my upper back and neck hurting.  Then dance class didn’t make me sweat at all since we were figuring out our lines.  We only practiced our routine maybe 3-4 times.  Then, I was out-of-town for the weekend and ate out most of the time.  Mind you, I did try to eat well despite it being restaurant food.  Needless to say, I was not feeling that great about myself at all at the beginning of this week.  Plus, that time of the month makes you feel like your 200 lbs!  So on Monday, when I was at boxing, I told N. about how fat I felt and how my arms felt soft.  She laughed at me and told me that it was all in my head.  Then again, I was wearing a t-shirt (I normally wear a tank top) and the sleeve cut me at a less flattering part of my arm.  I worked out really hard that night, convinced I was going to gain weight if I didn’t put effort into keeping it up.  Then I taught boxercise on Tuesday and left all sweaty (yay!).  Boxing again on Wednesday felt completely different – I felt strong again, I wore my tank top and made an effort to look at my arms to see if Monday’s vision of myself was indeed a disillusion caused by hormones.  Well, I have to say that it was all in my head.  I read an article in a magazine where a woman had taken pictures of herself each day and wrote about how she felt about her body.  The funny thing is, despite feeling fat on some days, the picture never changed.  It was all in her head.  It’s amazing how that can happen. 

I found this interesting article about the opposite problem: women who believe they are slim, but they are in fact obese.  Check it out!

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/09/body-image-do-certain-people-m.html

On the road to recovery

It’s been a hectic week work-wise.  With report cards around the corner, it’s easy to let working out go by the wayside.  I had to forgo my Wednesday boxing class so I could finish up my report cards.  Then, on Thursday, my hip hop class was cancelled since my teacher was in SJ for a dance competition.  Starting to feel a little guilty for a lack of working out, I made up for it on Friday.  I ended up going to boxing.  It was a pretty good workout and I was satisfied with it. 

It wasn’t too hard getting back into the routine after taking a week off.  I have to say that I made a conscious effort to listen to my body and know when to stop.  On Monday, I was feeling dizzy and weak at boxing, so I decided to leave early.  I was feeling much better on Tuesday to teach the boxercise class.  I see how it could be easy to stop working out and because I’m aware of this pitfall, it makes me work harder to stay on track. 

One thing that I’m still enjoying is going shopping.  I went this weekend and now I can confidently grab a size small and be sure that it’ll fit.  It took some time to adapt, but I now know what size to look for.  I tried on a dress this weekend that I thought might make me look fat, but after trying it on, I have to say it looked hot!  I put it on hold and went back today to buy it – I just couldn’t resist.  It’s my reward for keeping at it.  My one year “anniversary” is coming up (December 29th) and let me tell you, I’ll be celebrating it!  Hopefully by wearing that dress to some party!!!

I have to say that keeping a food journal has certainly kept me on track this year.  In fact, I bought my 3rd one yesterday.  It makes a difference when you write everything down.  It makes you accountable for what you put in your mouth.  People who tell me they couldn’t bother writing everything down make me wonder if they’re truly serious about losing weight.  When you want something really bad, you have to take the necessary steps to reach your goal.  Now that I’ve gone from 143 lbs to 118 lbs, I’m not making excuses for it anymore.  I’m done with making people who haven’t reached their goal bad because I’ve reached mine.  I worked hard for it and I’m going to feel good about my accomplishment and I’m not downplaying it anymore.

Here’s a final thought: when you get sick, you need to listen to your body.  It’s telling you to slow down.  But remember, you do have to get back on the “workout horse” as soon as you’re feeling better.  Don’t let a small setback get in the way of your goal.