Ahhh, first post of 2012! I hope everyone's New Years celebrations went well and that the year has started out well. I've heard a lot of people say that 2011 wasn't a great year for them (and I would tend to agree) so hopefully this year is better for everyone!
My year started out relatively boringly, which I'm definitely not complaining about. Mr. Leick and myself stayed in, watched football, and generally did nothing until midnight, at which point we had our midnight kiss, drank some sparkling juice (because we are old) and then went to bed. I worked all day on the first but had today off which was nice.
But now onto the actual point of this post! Since work really kicked into gear for the Christmas season, I completely slacked on my diet. Not so much on the learning German part, but definitely on the diet. I didn't really work out (although I was on my feet for at least a full eight and a half hours a day, usually running around like a chicken with my head cut off which counts for something) and I ate out more frequently and introduced more processed food and a lot of less healthy drink options (not soda though!) back into my diet. The whole time, I said that once the Christmas season ended and I wasn't stressed out with work, I'd go back to it. I'm incredibly proud of myself for making good on that statement. I didn't GAIN any of the weight I'd lost back, but I certainly didn't lose anymore and I really, really want to get back down to a weight I haven't seen since high school, which is about 20-30 pounds away. I put on an absolutely ridiculous amount of weight between college and getting married and I would love for it to all go away, and then some.
Since I knew that I would need the motivation to get back to it, I asked a couple of people for weight loss-related things for Christmas. My mom got me these awesome resistance bands:
Three different resistances in super fun colors!
Plus Kate, one of my best friends, got me these:
(Cue the Freshman year P.E. flashback)
This video is AMAZING. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Bob. SO MUCH.
(More on him in a moment.)
And then today while grocery shopping at Aldi I happened upon one of the best deals I've ever found: a PINK(!) exercise ball for $6.99! I didn't even think twice about throwing it in my cart.
Blowing up the ball
Looking like a deflated balloon. xD
All blown up!
(I'm not entirely sure why I took these pictures, but I did so I'm posting them.)
I actually started working out again on New Year's Eve. I had nothing better to do so I figured I'd work out, and it felt really, really good to be back at it. If I hadn't started feeling like I was going to puke (from my meal three hours earlier) I'm sure I would have made it through the 30 Day Shred. Of course, the next day on the first, I felt like my abs were going to eat me alive but I didn't mind. It felt so good to know that I was being healthy again that I was excited about it. Then today I did the Biggest Loser cardio workout and I discovered Trainer Bob.
I've never seen The Biggest Loser, but having done a workout video with Bob and one with Jillian, I would do SO much better on Bob's team. Matt was even watching my workout and he said he felt motivated to join me after watching the first few minutes and hearing the way Bob approached his audience/the people from the Biggest Loser who were doing the workout. I'm not going to completely sideline the 30 Day Shred, but I think that I'm going to be doing the cardio workout tape much more frequently now. I need a video that keeps me motivated and the negative motivation I get from doing Jillian's workout (I WILL FINISH THIS AND BEAT YOU, YOU BITCH) is far more emotionally draining than the positive motivation I got from doing Bob's today. I didn't feel like I was being mocked for needing to modify certain exercises because I'm just not there physically yet.
In addition to being awesome in the video, Matthew discovered his
website. It has all things weightloss related and I am really excited to get to explore it more. He has a few videos about healthy food recipes he likes including one for oatmeal with fresh apples, chopped almonds, and cinnamon. He even lists a few very interesting facts about cinnamon that I never would have known. I feel a little like I'm gushing about a new crush, but I am really excited about the new video and the website.
PLUS! My workout pants kept almost falling down today, and let's not even talk about every pair of other pants I own, and a few skirts from work. To know that my clothes are all getting too big is incredibly exciting because it hasn't really happened for me, well...ever.
And because I want to include a touch of my learning German in this post...
I've been making a lot of progress there, too! I spent a few hours over a couple of days pouring over every material I have that discusses German grammar and I finally feel like I really, really understand how it works. I understand the seven different verb cases and at least the idea behind each one and my vocabulary is growing (although I really need to make more flashcards) and I feel like I'm making some big strides. I'm going to work on it a bit more after I finish this post and it's getting kind of late, so I think I'll just end this here.
Hopefully I'll have another update soon and it won't be another two weeks before I get another post out. :)
Tschüss!