Retiring a classic label

So.

Kerry won.

I did NOT beat Kerry.

I think it only fitting that I retire the label "Beating Kerry", thus ensuring I remain honourable in my defeat.

All hail, Kerry, the queen of fitness, diet, and self-sacrifice. She will not be beaten!

The home stretch - and I mean STRETCH

So this is it. Only three days left of the "Waist-loss Challenge". Will I beat Leslie? Will I win against Kerry? Will I come in LAST (which, by the way, would NOT be okay with me, Ms. Competitionado. But you know, I just can't seem to get back to that time, almost three years ago, when I was SO. BLOODY. HARDCORE. I NEVER strayed from the portions. I NEVER had more than one drink in a day and when I did it was ALWAYS red wine. I was insane. And yeah...I lost 29 lbs in only 10 weeks - and 7.5% body fat at the same time.

But like I said, that was insane. And really, do I want to live like that? No. Really really not. Really. NOT. So I haven't really gone back there again. I still go back and wonder how I let myself get back to where I had started three years ago, but then, I have to stop doing that, because bad times and two miscarriage kinda screw with your emotional eating tendancies, you know?

So anyways. I've been working out. I've been MOSTLY eating really healthy. I've been naughty...just once or twice....

and you know what? That's what makes me a more interesting person to be around.

And when you're naughty, it can also mean you are stretchy, right? Flexible? Adventurous? Seriously limber? Yes....working out is such a goooooood thing!

Hey - Why not be a BITCH?

You want to know what the heck I mean for this, don't you? Well...it's not what you think. What it is is GREAT advice for accomplishing tough goals. Like, say, losing weight the right way, and reaching the goals you set for yourself. If you have any interest at all in this, a recent blog post by a great friend and a phenomenal trainer I know can help. Check it out.

And, if this helps, then tell me what you did, how it went, and if it's a work in progres, how it is going.

Personally, the weight is dropping off slower this time around, since the biggest sacrifice is following the 'scientific' way of eating (another whole blog post sometime for the future), but I am pretty okay with the progress. I feel better, I am noticing a change in the way my clothes are fitting, and the tone of my skin, and as ALWAYS, my energy level is better and my positive attitude much more prominent day in and day out. And THAT, my friends, is more than enough reason to be taking care of myself and working out.

And it will hopefully mean that I beat Kerry and Leslie in the Waist-loss Challenge we've got goin' on!!!

ADDITIONAL NOTE:
I cannot say enough about a new 'fast food' restaurant that just opened up at Centrum Plaza here in Kanata - Mucho Burrito -! It's assemby-line fast food burritos, but capital Q quality ingredients, whole wheat tortilla options, and lots of homemade healthy salsas and other great toppings. Steak, chicken breast, chorizo sausage (ok, so that one's not so healthy) - all grilled on site. It has been a lifesaver for us for a healthy quick option for dinners and lunches here and there, and I hope to heck that some of these open up in other locations....maybe downtown would be nice!!!!

Throw-down, Hell No I Can't Slow Down!

Ah... what can motivate better than a good ol'fashioned waist-off, eh? The trash talk, the words of encouragement, the itemized lists of what was eaten and what was sweat out each day...

Two of my good girlfriends and I have a 6 week long diet and exercise competition in the works, deadline Sept. 11, with the objective of being the hot body who loses the greatest percentage of inches on 5 key body points. All three of us are/were horrified by the measurements, and yet we choose to drink a tall glass of water and sweat out the disgust. Not delve into the Hagen Daas. Kudos to all three of us.

But that still doesn't change the fact that there can be NO OTHER WINNER but me, baby!

Controlled chaos and the excitement of a new kitchen

It's a new feeling for me, just watching something like this unfold before me. I have never had the money to afford to pay others to do home improvement jobs before, and I have to say, I am both excited and bored, patient and impatient, happy and kinda unhappy (I guess - just bummed that I am sitting here while it is happening). I am off for a week, but stuck here at home. Not truly motivated to do anything big, but getting a few little things done...just kinda waiting. (And heading to a workout shortly, of course - gotta beat Kerry and Leslie in the waist-loss challenge!)

but boy, is it looking good! Just wait until you see. There will DEFINITELY be before and after pix coming along shortly, but I will wait to post them.

I will cook some SEXY food in there, let me just say...

The case of the curiously NON skrinking stomach

HOLY CRAP I am hungry!

One bad weekend of overeating and lots of drinking, and all of a sudden your stomach is a cavernous, yawning, gaping hole that grumbles, mumbles and works every second to distract you from life as you know it. I can't even think right now!

So yeah...it takes a number of days to get your stomach down to a size where the signals you get from your brain are actual hunger. Down to a point where the right portions actually become somewhat filling. I'm not there right now. But I soon will be, because I've been there, done that, before, and so I can do it again.

And I have a side bet with a friend to get me through those times when it simply doesn't matter, and what I really want is a bag of chips and maybe even a Big Mac....and heaven help me when that happens!

A long and healthy life

I gotta do it, right? To look hot, tighten up and keep healthy, I have to drag my ass to the gym. I know it. I do.... but do I have to?????

Why is it so damn hard for our minds to conjure up the good feelings you have AFTER workouts to motivate you before you go? Why can't we do this? Why? There must be a scientific explanation for all the selective memory.

All I know is that the program I subscribe to is NASTY hard, so sometimes you just don't have that go git 'em kinda feeling, you know? Especially on a damn Monday.

But I will go...you know I will.

I want to win the bet I have with my friend Kerry AND I love the idea of living longer and feeling healthy throughout my life. I guess it's worth it...sigh.