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Feb
3rd

30 Days, January

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My 30 Day goal for January was to develop my business, Honeysuckle Life. My initial goal was to spend an hour every day on the business, but it turned out that some days were completely void of progress. While others were spent entirely on the business. My biggest success was buying and creating several products for the upcoming boutique. I still haven’t decided what to do with the blog, but I know what I want for the boutique. Expect new listings of Nicaraguan products. Skirts, blouses, scarves, dolls, hand-carved wooden bowls and pillowcases. All with a socially conscious theme. I’ll launch the boutique in the next two weeks. Que fantastico!

Dec
2nd

30 Days of Working Out

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Last week marked the end of my 30 Day Fitness Goal. Let me say first that I rocked it. We faithfully worked out, only missing one day out of 30 days. Each workout went over my requirement, sometimes by 30 minutes. I lost over seven inches in total, two and a half of them on my waist. My arms, face and waist were noticeably slimmer. The best part? Frank also worked out EVERY DAY with me. There was not one day he didn’t go to the gym, so the end result is a healthier and better looking us, instead of just me. It’s fantastic.
How did we do it? A few days before the goal started, Rachel Hunt from Extreme Fit Training sent over a few workouts that were super intense. I’m talking, three circuits of 20-30 minutes. Full out activity. Most of them were so intense I had a hard time not staggering out of the gym. Add in extreme Nicaraguan heat, and an open air gym, and you have a lot of sweat but no tears. She periodically checked in with me over the month, sending workouts as she completed them and encouraging me.  I received a total of 20 workouts, at a cost of $75. On the days the gym was closed, I used one of my workout DVDs instead.
We decided not to let this momentum go, so we’re continuing to workout a minimum of 30 minutes, Monday thru Friday. This is the minimum suggestions from the experts. I’m hoping to get at least 60 minutes on good days. Today was a little rushed, but I went all out for the 35 minutes at the gym. I know I’ll see even more results.
I didn’t see the results I wanted in my weight, which was mostly because I was building up so much muscle and didn’t change my eating habits. My goal for the next 30 Days is to eat healthier, which will turn into weight loss. This can be ambiguous, so I’ve broken it down to these trackable goals:
  • Track my food and exercise daily on Sparkpeople
  • Exercise true portion control
  • Absolutely no Cokes, Frescas, Tang, or any other sugary drink
  • Eat at least one lean protein every day
  • Focus on vegetables and fruits
  • No fried foods but especially no french fries (my weakness)
  • Read one health related article or blog post every day

I’m not really sticking to a calorie goal, and I’m not cutting out “fun foods” like pizza or pasta completely. When I do consume those foods, I need to be aware of what I am eating and consume about half of what I normally would. I also need to make sure I’m getting enough protein, which is something I never have enough of. The point of this isn’t to crash diet, it’s to reset my system and find a way to have a healthy diet.

I hope to lose anywhere from 5-10 lbs. The upper limit would be my hope, while I think I would be satisfied with five solid lbs of fat gone.

Nov
9th

30 Days Fitness Update

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For the past three weeks, I have been sweating it out at the gym. And I do mean sweating it out. Rachel has me on this insane workout regimen that has me working harder than I have ever worked before.

It’s paying off.

I can see a difference in my overall body, even if my weight isn’t dropping. Frank has definitely noticed, as well as another person who mentioned it last week. Which is why I’ve decided to extend this goal to six weeks instead of four. I want to regain the level of fitness I had in my early 20’s. I don’t want to look in the mirror and be unhappy with my body anymore. And I want to be healthy.

Granted, I’m not eating better which has as much to do with being healthy as my fitness level. I think this will be a future 30 day subject, as soon as I can come up with a definable goal. “Eating better” just doesn’t cut it. I work well with clearly defined goals that are easy to measure.

So what is the Nicaraguan gym experience like? To be honest, it’s a lot better than the UAB gym we used while living in Birmingham. It’s smaller, but it’s open air. The treadmills look out onto a garden where a turtle roams, mowing the grass with his beak. Fresh towels and purified water are always at the entrance. And the gym owner works morning and greets us with a smile.

Oct
19th

New 30 Day Goal

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I started my new goal today. A personal trainer in Birmingham developed a workout plan for me.  I totally rocked the first workout. Ok, I’ll be honest. I cut the cardio short by 5 10 minutes, justified by the amount of cardio I had already done that day. And I had to finish some of the exercises at the house, because I couldn’t figure out one of the more difficult moves. I did so many lunges that I’m not sure I’ll be able to move tomorrow, but it feels great to have a start. A new beginning for a more improved body.

Oct
15th

No News Success

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Today is my 30th and final day on the news restriction. I’ve only seen or heard about the news if someone else mentions it on Twitter, Facebook or through email). It’s odd what gets passed on through those outlets: the murder of an acquaintance in Birmingham, Dave Letterman’s affairs, Jon and Kate’s battle over finances, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

I found it an interesting study on what my friends react to. The most noteworthy item was the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, in which only a few people out of the many who responded were positive. That received the most reactions. Unfortunately, most of my Facebook friends are Southern Baptist Republicans. I say unfortunately because half of them aren’t hateful and ignorant about Democrats (good) and the other half are working on serious paranoia that might eventually put them in the psych ward (bad). It doesn’t do much for my blood pressure when something political in nature occurs. I’ve started hiding people that piss me off. By the next election I’ll have 10 friends.

So today starts my new goal: fitness. I haven’t really set up a plan, although I have taken before pictures. I’ve thought about doing the 30 Day Shred every day as a minimum, and hopefully adding on a random yoga/pilates class as well as walking/running with Frank. It sounds too ambitious though. I’m also pondering rotating my workout videos out, 30 Day Shred, Pilates, Yoga. I need to have a simple plan by the end of the day. No plan=no sticking with the goal.