Working It Out!

Once again I owe this blog a huge update and some attention. I'm getting there, I promise! I have so many balls in the air right now and I am trying desperately to get everything lined up perfectly. Is anyone else like that? I'm so viscously Type-A that I want everything, EVERYTHING going right all at the same time.

Guess what? It's close. It's all close.

Work, money, relationship, family, friends, and fitness.

Quickly breaking it all down - work: I am now one of the rarest of the rare - I have not one, not two, but three jobs. I'm still working at Sport Clips, which is my bread and butter. It pays the bills, it's helped me grow leaps and bounds with men's cuts and it lead me to my second job, at a full service salon. I'm assisting at Hairlights Salon in Pleasanton, which is a Paul Mitchell Focus salon. I've already learned SO much both on the hair side and the business side. The owner is an amazing educator with Paul Mitchell and has so much business savvy. I am beside myself that I fell into this opportunity. The third job is less time consuming, but more of a passion that Sport Clips. I was hired to freelance with MAC Cosmetics, after years of working on my own to build a portfolio and waiting for the opportunity. I am thrilled.

Money: Jeff and I have started to budget using a software called YNAB. It was $60 to download the software for our computers and $5 each to download the app for iPhone. After one month of using the budget I can safely say it was $70 well spent. We've been living paycheck to paycheck for sometime, and while we're never dirt broke I hate juggling with bills - "let's pay this now and these two after we get paid again..." - it was terrible. Thanks to YNAB after one month we already have 25% of our buffer (that is a full month's income) built up, so in theory by November we should have a 100% buffer built up and can simply pay bills as they come in. Additionally I set up a debt snowball. We should have all of our debt (minus student loans) paid off within a year, perhaps less. And the total of our debt is NOT tiny. We relied on our credit cards way way way too much in 2011.

Relationship: Without delving too much into it (because it is not just my business but Jeff's as well), we went through a bit of a rocky phase. I was stressed out, worrying constantly and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Luckily we worked it out and are better than ever. Saying our relationship is solid is an understatement, and I'm thrilled neither of us just quit when it got hard.

My family life and friends are great. My mom and dad are doing pretty well, my sister is taking HER cosmetology state board exam tomorrow and things are just going all together well. I'm hoping the trend continues. My friendships have all been flourishing, I don't know how with my schedule being more hectic than ever I've had time to nurture those relationships but I'm grateful. It's only gotten harder to see my high school friends regularly since everyone's married and has kiddos and grown up jobs and lives, but we made it work this past weekend when we participated in The Color Run, then had a BBQ after. And we have plans next June for a girls only joint 30th birthday weekend at a beach house. Two days sitting on the beach with a cocktail in my hand? Yes, please.

Fitness: Remember how in my last post (in JUNE) I said things were clicking and I was seeing big changes? Well that's an understatement:

The photo on the left is June 1. The photo on the right is July 31. In two months I lost just shy of 40 pounds, went from wanting to die running for 60 seconds to completing a 5K training program (still working on actually being able to run the entire 3.1, but I can officially say I am addicted to running!), am feeling STRONG and capable, and am happy. Happy as hell. Thanks to Ease into 5K and the bootcamp I just started I am watching my body change every day.  Feel free to keep watching with me!

Hello hello!

Hi guys!

I can't believe I am posting again about how it's been so long, how I'm neglecting the blog, how I suck, blah blah.

But I digress.

Something clicked. In the last month, something clicked hard. Jeff and I joined a gym, have been working out every day, counting calories and getting ready for our life together.

I feel like I sat by and watched life happen. I changed that a little bit in 2009 after my first 3-Day, and it took me the last 3 years to figure out the rest of it.

Here are the cold, hard facts about me:

I can't do it alone. I am independent as all get out, but having my amazing and sweet (and equally out of shape) boyfriend wake me up and say "let's hit the gym" makes all the difference. Working out next to him pushes me harder than I could ever push myself.

I have to be working toward something. Not just "I want to weigh 165 in a year" (which I do) or "when I lose 50 pounds I'll buy myself those Tiffany earrings" (which I will), but something physical to push my body to. I know training so hard (and correctly) for the 3-Day in 2009 is why I lost so much weight that year. So when I signed up for a 5k fun run I had something to work towards. I've stared training using an amazing app, Ease into 5k. And since starting again I have run every single part of my interval training that I'm supposed to. The first time I successfully completed a full training session I was grinning like an idiot on the treadmill during my entire cool down. I think if this becomes habit I'll have to sign up for a race every month or so.

I have to really, really limit my dairy intake. I don't want to get too far into this one, but let's just say it's not a good thing, and I'm tired of what I've eaten impacting the rest of my day.

Counting calories. Have to do it. Everything that goes into my mouth goes into My Fitness Pal. How often do we forget that we ate something earlier? I have to track right then right there or the Luna bar I ate slips my mind, or I forget I was starving so I threw together a turkey and cheese sandwich as I flew out the door for work.

These are the things that are working for me right now, and I'm learning every day to embrace who I am now and who I want to be and not let the person I was impact that.

Things clicked. I'm seeing huge changes. I'm really, really happy.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mono, weight loss and me

So just a couple days after I last updated I got two VERY important things. Number one: A JOB! I'm working at a Sport Clips. It's pretty fun. Honestly not what I dreamed of doing, but for now it's great. I'm planning on staying at least a few months so le boyfriend and I can pay off some of our credit card debt before we make the big leap into cohabitation (realistically that will be a very small leap, if I were less budget crazy we'd be apartment hunting in a few weeks). Then I'll start looking into full service again.

Important thing Number two: I got mono. I shit you not. 29 years old. The morning I got the job offer I woke up with that achey joint feeling I associate with getting a cold. Two days later I took my uninsured ass to urgent care where I was misdiagnosed with the flu, then two days after that my mom had my blood ran and according to her my mono jumped up faster than the control line. Apparently you can get mono from stress - I'd been taking the job search really really hard and it was starting to get to me. It was wearing on my relationship and my family life and pretty much everything.

I was very, very sick for about 10 days. I was in pain all the time, couldn't stay awake for more than two hours at a time (and still get quite tired), and thanks to the fever that came and went every night I wound up with a mouth full of literally 30 canker sores. I couldn't brush my teeth without crying from rubbing the toothbrush against them, I had canker sores on my tongue, the roof of my mouth, the inside of my lips, my cheeks and down my throat.

During at least 5 of those 10 days guess what I couldn't do. Did you guess eat? Yeah, you'd be right. I lost 16 pounds in 6 days, and that's only what I'm sure of. I hadn't weighed before. I was living on meal replacement shakes and even those hurt like hell to drink. It was a blast. I decided to take the lemons mono had given me and make lemonade though, and once I started to feel better decided that mono was designed to jump start SERIOUS weight loss. The first week after returning to eating I gained back half a pound (which I fully expected), and since then I've lost 3 more pounds -- meaning I'm just over 20 pounds away from my first short term goal of 40 pounds and being able to color my hair! Oh GOD I cannot wait to start it. Honestly I might only make it to 30 before I can't take it anymore and have to grab the color remover.

I'm still reformatting my schedule, hopefully I'll have time to finish that this week, and I'm going to be (re)starting with the 30 Day Shred AND Couch to 5K beeeeecause. . .

I'm running a 5K in August!

Several of my best friends and I are going to be running in The Sacramento Color Run! I am so excited to be sharing the experience and running in my first (of many!) official races.

Look for another post from me in a few days with an updated schedule, Weigh In Wednesday annnnnnnd progress photos! It's long over due, but I finally feel like a flip switched and I'm ready to do this.

Starting over sucks.

And here's why: it means you gave up. It means you let some bullshit excuse get in the way of your goal. And yet here I am, starting over.

Booooooooooooooo.

Here's what's bad - I could be so much further along today than I am.

Here's what's good - I have been keeping track of calories via the greatest app in the world (My Fitness Pal), so I am actually down about 8 pounds and I FEEL different this time.

In 2009 I lost just shy of 60 pounds, then through a host of issues (emotional eating, breakup with a terrible boyfriend, breakup with a terrible job) decided to gain most of it back. I mention that because while I was losing that weight I felt the same way I do now -- not a lot of self imposed pressure, just a very zen state.

So while I am still restructuring and reorganizing my fitness plan this week I am confident I'm on the right path. Finally. I'm also goal oriented, so when I decided last week I wanted to change my hair color (drastically) I told myself "when I lose 40 pounds." So I'm hoping to do that in June.

Back in the saddle again, for the last time.

Here we go!

369 days to go.

But that's not the focus right now. I'm not here to talk about my absence (computer issues, crap flu), or to talk about how the January detox went (until Sunday), or to talk about my job search (still going on, but hopefully over soon!).

On January 31 it was announced that Susan G. Komen for the Cure would be defunding Planned Parenthood. I've been asked several times in the last couple days what my opinion is on the matter.

What does this mean?

It means that the $680,000 per year that Komen had previously given to Planned Parenthood for breast health screenings will no longer go to Planned Parenthood. It will be directed to another part of this many-headed beast. That $680,000 works out to $13,600 per state per year. $1133.33 per state per month. If you divide that by 20 business days per month it is $56.67 per state per day.

I am not trying to devalue what Komen is taking away from Planned Parenthood. I feel like I've been ripped in two over this. My involvement with Susan G. Komen shaped my life in a way that no other experience ever has. I was indifferent to their funding Planned Parenthood. It isn't what inspired me. To me, Komen and Planned Parenthood have always been two separate things.

I've been donating to Planned Parenthood longer than I've been involved with Komen. Three times over. Full disclosure - the first time I donated to Planned Parenthood I was a junior in high school and I had a pregnancy scare. I was so grateful I wasn't knocked up that I took half my paycheck from Old Navy and wrote an $86.44 check to Planned Parenthood. I've donated every year since then, whatever I could afford at the time. A couple years ago the local Planned Parenthood moved from a small, out of the way building to a much larger building on a major street. I drive by it about 4 times a week. Whenever I see people outside protesting (usually old men who have never possessed female reproductive organs) I pull over, walk in and donate something.

I believe in Planned Parenthood's mission. Hell, I AM Planned Parenthood's mission. I've used their services several times. I believe in Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I will walk in the 3-Day this year. I will walk in the 3-Day next year. I will walk until there is a cure for breast cancer. I can't walk away from it. I can't turn my back on the one thing that's been a constant source of inspiration. I am sure that in the coming days Komen will announce a plan to continue funding the women who would have benefited from the $680,000. I firmly believe the decision to defund Planned Parenthood was a poor one that wasn't thought out and that they spent about zero time with their PR department.

I will continue to support both organizations and hope that a resolution is arrived at sooner rather than later. When the sun rose on January 31st there wasn't a cure for breast cancer. When it set that night there still wasn't a cure. My mission may have changed, but it hasn't ended.