Monday, Monday... Ba Ba, Ba Ba da dah...

Monday, December 20, 2010

I love Mondays. Call me sick, but it's true. It wasn't always like this, but I am now.

Monday is a day for frolicking in the early morning hours before my daughter gets up.

Monday is a day for checking in with my Spark Buds to look at fun Christmas pics, catch up on reading blogs, and gain inspiration and strength from their examples.

Monday is a day of new beginnings. This weekend, I ate hot chocolate and cookies on the North Pole Express train ride to see Santa with my Mom and daughter. I had Eggplant Parm and Spumoni at a Ma and Pa Italian Kitchen in Globe, Az before we left. I had fudge on the drive home. That, combined with a week of grazing on Christmas treats at the office leaves me with an extra 5 pounds to show for it. But Monday is a day of new beginnings.

On this Monday, this day of new beginnings, I'm going to treat my body like a temple, and gift it with things joyful, healthful and beautiful.

On this Monday, I am going to look for and acknowledge things that I am grateful for throughout the day. Starting with my Spark Community. You guys keep me honest, and I am totally present to the POWER and LOVE of this community. Thank you, and Happy Holidays.

Namaste,
Barb

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Seven Years of Neglecting My Body

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

It's not surprising how 7 years of neglect left my body obese. But its time to celebrate now. I'm celebrating because I have lost a total of 40 lbs since May of this year. Even though its been up and down 5-10 lbs over the last couple months, I am doing a maintenance dance this time - something I've never done before.

With the help of my SparkBuds, I have refocused my attention on my exercise and living by the 80/20 rule. I started Jillian's 30 day shred a month or so ago, and quit after about 6 days. But I started back up, and I'm glad to say tomorrow I'll be on Day 8.

What IS surprising to me is how after 7 years of complete neglect, I'm seeing results after only 7 days of shredding. I'm so happy my body remembers how to build muscle and show definition!

That said, I want to re-state my vision: My body WILL be unrecognizable by my 48th birthday, May 4th, 2011! How could it NOT!???

Ta-da,
Barb

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I'm Back... Again

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

As my SparkBud Pam reminds me, inviting a public a$$ whoopin' is a good way to get honest with myself and the world.

I've been on an inexcuseable vacay from the healthy life for a few weeks. Not all is lost. Still making lots of healthy choices, but I certainly could have done a lot better.

I started back on track yesterday. This morning I re-started Day 1 of Jillian's Shred. Only made it to Day 9 the first time I tried, and quit for some lame reason. Yesterday I challenged my coworker again to the shred, and we both started today. I intend to finish the shred by New Years.

After Christmas and before New Years, I'm going to finish cleaning out my basement and transform it into my workout room, And at the beginning of the year, I'm going to start P90X. My body WILL be unrecognizable by my 48th birthday in May.

That's all for now. I'll be logging in everyday again, and blogging at least once a week. I'm requesting support from my SparkBuds, and hereby grant permission to all of you to kick my a$$ if you catch me slacking.

Thanks for the support you guys. Can't do this without you.

Love,
Barb

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Releasing big girl clothes leads to Ghandi's presence in my life.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Sunday I went through my big girl clothes, and was amazed at how much "stuff" came up for me. I've been "hiding" in those clothes for years. I became resigned to life as a chubby, invisible, middle-aged woman.

No more.

I have taken the first step in releasing all of it - the clothes AND the baggage. And I can see at least $300-$500 of ebay profits on my performance wardrobe - enough to purchase a new wardrobe.

My goal is to get to my goal weight of 134 by Thanksgiving. I will also sell all my clothes by then, and go shopping for new pieces for performance.

But it's already started. I've already released some of those clothes. And next Friday, November 5, I'm doing a concert with an amazing group of artists at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). All of us are committed to Peace and Love, and the concert theme has a "We are the World" type of feel to it, and our dress theme is Eastern Indian type clothing. I found a lovely churidar kameez with a dupatta in purple and aqua, and ordered it a couple weeks ago.

Here's the really amazing part: Yesterday morning, I learned that the garments left Ahmedebad, India, less than a 20-minute drive from Ghandi's home in Sabarmati Ashram! My garments travelled over the Sabarmati River on the Ghandi Bridge Saturday night as they left on their journey to travel halfway around to world to me. They passed through Guangzhou, China before heading overseas to Alaska, and arrived this morning at the distribution facility here in Phoenix - ready to come home to me here in Gilbert, Arizona.

I love my life, my purpose, and holding a space for peace and love in the world. And I love that I can live it in my healthy new body.

Namaste,
Barb

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Coming Clean...

Friday, October 22, 2010

I've been struggling with consistency the last few weeks. Between exercise and eating healthfully, I have not found a good balance.

Thank goodness for my SparkBuds - Dee & KelliGirl & Pamatx - thank you so much for not giving up on me. Its your gentle guidance, blogs and check-ins that keep me coming back. So now it's time for an all-out Come-to-Jesus meetin'. Or Buddha. Or Jehovah. Or whoever or whatever it is that you honor in your spiritual connections.

I've gained 7 pounds over the last month. I haven't weighed in because I don't want to admit failure, but withholding and hiding is one of my stupid-jerky-human games I play when I don't want to take responsibility for my actions. So I'm giving that up today. I'm going to start today by logging my weight.

I don't know why I'm struggling for balance. It seemed so easy a few months ago. Now I'm asking more of myself on exercise. Remember, I went from Queen Couch Potato to walking 15-25 minutes a day. I'm still doing that, but then I took on Shredding with Jillian. While I was shredding, I was eating like a teen - with reckless abandon - as though my extra 20 minutes a day justified the behavior. Don't get me wrong - Thanks to my buddy, Dee, I'm still making more healthful choices than I have in years, but not 100% and certainly eating more than I should.

I made it to Level 1, Day 8 with Jillian. I had some chest pain a couple weeks ago, my doc ran a bunch of blood tests (all fine) but last week he grounded me from shredding with Jillian until I could see the cardiologist for an echo and stress test on Wednesday (I'm sure he would have grounded me sooner had I told him).

That Stress-Echo test was an experience in itself. They really need to come up with a bra that works with that test - let me tell you it wasn't pretty. The girls were footloose and fancy free on that treadmill.

The really awesome news is that the cardiologist reads the results immediately and says everything is fine. Exercise restriction is completely lifted. Of course he gives me the standard disclaimer - he says the warranty expires the minute I step out of the office. But, for now, I'm clear.

I say, "Awesome. That's what I was looking for - a clean bill of health."

And he says, "Oh, we'll send you a bill alright..." (Bah dump-BUMP!)

So what does all this mean? NO EXCUSES. That's what it means. Today is a new day. As Chris would say, "One step back, two steps forward". I'm ready for those few steps forward now. I'm back on track to reach my goal weight by Thanksgiving.

Namaste,
Barb

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