Boot off, Workouts Back on!

The boot was removed, ankle still has some sore-ness....in fact I've yet to be able to wear a pair of high-heel shoes, but I'm slowly easing into that. I've managed 3 yoga classes - which is a miracle cause I HATE yoga.

Last week my friends and I exchanged our Secret Santa gifts. I acted like an 8-year-old overwhelmed with joy when I recieved:



Much love to my friend Rochelle for this. I'm such a huge music fiend, combine that with my love of my Wii and bam! Pure joy! I've managed to do this in workout mode every day this week. Sometimes only for 3-4 songs, twice I've managed to go for an hour. I am determined to get a high score on Tina Turner's Proud Mary, haha.

Because I've managed this amount of workout, I'm going to attempt Zumba tomorrow at 10 am. My cousin Dana (physical therapist) recommeded I get a light-weight ankle brace to wear during class. Here's hoping I can get back to daily classes.

I'm also in desperate need of grocery staples. My veggies come from a co-op but I'm completely out of milk, cheese and olive oil. Off to make a list!

Curse you Bacon!

My friend Amy has been raving about the quality of the meats at a local butcher shop. Please note, I am not much of a meat eater, the stars have to align for me to really crave a steak, but I love the idea of getting fresh and local poultry and grew up having bacon and freshly ground hamburger from my grandparents butcher in El Campo. So Saturday morning, I weeble wobble into the store. It really was a mecca of meat. They were actually butchering a pig behind the counter. Please note, I'm from Texas y'all, so the concept of seeing this wasn't a distraction as much as heartwarming to know that shops still do this.

I looked around the counter and ended up buying 6 local quail (my favorite bird), a pound of ground buffalo....and half a pound of bacon *looks away*. There's something about that bacon that just called to me. I've been cooking 3 slices of the bacon, and making a sandwich out of Arnold's Sandwich Thins, lots of spinach, lots of tomato and a horseradish sour cream. My side has been baby carrots. I've had it twice since Saturday.

I've also successfully cooked food at home for 3 days straight, starting each day with a green monster smoothie. The y keep me energized all the way to lunch, which is shocking. Normally 9:30 a.m. rolls around and I'm starving.

I even brought lunch with me to work - I made deconstructed sushi. Basically, I made sushi rice, sliced some cucumbers, carrots and avocados, added some leftover bbq (for a Texas twist, I guess) and a splash of rice wine vinegar. It's delicious. Next time I'm going to switch it out for brown rice.

Injured

Admittedly, I'm not the most graceful of people. I can Zumba with the best of them, but can not walk down a flight of stairs. Last Saturday, I had just arrived at the Lady Antebellum concert (who were awesome, btw) and was walking down the stairs of the venue to go get a coke (it's a long drive to the venue, so I didn't want to drink alcoholic beverages) and what happens? My left foot missed a step and I go rolling down the stairs. My friend Lauren says that it was epic to watch, and even more amazing that I just hopped back up and kept walking like nothing happened. The next day I had a huge ass bruise on my upper left thigh, but was no worse for wear.

Then Monday morning rolls around. I am leaving for work, have my purse and blackberry in one hand, and a bag of trash to take out in the other. I walk down the stairs that I've walked up and down everyday for over a year and a half...same left foot misses a step and this time, disaster. My right leg bends underneath my world-renowned ass. I felt a pop.....this time I stayed down. Tried walking and realized I could, but that it hurt. Was hoping I could 'walk it off", so I proceed to limp to the trash bin, throw that away, get in my car and drive to work.....

By the time I get to work, I realize that something is really wrong. I go to my bosses office, lift up my pant leg and can clearly tell that my ankle is about 3 times the size it normally is. I turn around, take the elevators back down, get in my car and drive to the ER. Two hours, $99, a cast and crutches later...yeah, I'm injured. I've been a hopalong for 4 days.

Yesterday, I was able to go to an orthopedic surgeon who did more xrays and an MRI and was able to upgrade to a walking boot for the next 3-6 weeks. It's a severly sprained ankle, and at first I was all "Thank GOD, not a break" until the super adorable male nurse (of whom I think was flirting with me, but how am I supposed to pick up the guy fitting me for my boot?) said that sprains are worse than breaks because you still have to use those tendons to walk/balance, etc. Good times :-(

This has made me much more aware of what is going in my mouth, because if I'm not going to be doing ANY extra physical activity, I have to be aware of this. I've switched to green monster smoothies for breakfast (been loving the pumpkin one) and decided to do "No Meat Fridays" with my coworkers.

I'm also extremely interested in seeing what new program Weight Watchers is unveiling at the end of this month. My biggest problem with them is that I couldn't eat that much fruit because it'd make me go over my points...which is borderline ridiculous - how many people do you know that get fat over eating 2 apples a day? Anyway, we shall see.

Wardrobe Malfunction

1:29 P.M. I head to the ladies room and unzip my pants.....and I hear a rip. I literally stood there in the woman's stall not comprehending what had just happened. These weren't even tight pants...like I had complete room and they were even baggy on me...yet I could now see all of my yellow lace thong panties....WHAT DO I DO?!

My height played a factor in that I'm wearing a long cowl neck sweater, so I just pulled it as low as I could, hoping that perhaps I could sneak back to my office and find a needle and thread, or at the very least, a stapler to survive the rest of the day. Um...no. I could feel the wind near my hoo-ha. So I dart to my office, grab my purse, run down a flight of stairs (again...feeling the wind) and out the back door of my office. Make it to my car, call boss to say I had a pants malfunction and would be right back. Managed to head home and put on another pair of pants and return to work, with hopefully no one catching a glimpse.

As soon as I got back to my desk, I looked up the schedule for Zumba and my lace undies-wearing-booty is heading to class tonight at 7:30. No freaking excuses.

At last post, I was considering going to a personal trainer....I met with her, but here's my issue, she wants to meet 3 times a week, at $40 a pop, that's $120 a week/$480 a month?! Ok, people, I make a comfortable salary...but I can NOT justify $500 a month on personal training, geez, my cousin who was a competitive body builder was paying that much to be in competition shape!! Jeeezus!!!

What up Eeyore?

Forgive me, I'm feeling moody - it's Faux-TOM time(I have an IUD, so don't experience traditional TOM's, so I call it Faux-TOM). Couple that with the fact that I'm in the throes of a massive website redesign for work, have been battling some insomnia, and have the wedding to go to, I'm a little all over the place right now.

One of my friends is currently using a personal trainer that she adores, so I'm thinking of checking her out. I don't like just having the accountability, I NEED that accountability. I haven't been to my Zumba classes in 2 weeks because the girls that I was going with dropped out. It's ridiculous and a totally lame excuse, but it's how I operate when it comes to exercise. I DID buy the Zumba DVD's and do them 3 x's a week, but it's not as intense as the classes.

Trying to balance an active social life with friends, kickstarting a dating life, work, keeping my place cleam AND trying to lose weight is a crapload of stuff to do. But I want to be healthy...above losing weight...I want to be able to feel good.

As for dating: I'm blaming the colder weather (yes, 80 is cold for Houston!!) on the sudden interest from the male population. I've gone on some really nice dates lately with guys that are really interesting. Still not feeling that spark with any of them, but I enjoy viewing my options :-)

My best Twilight interpretation

I grew up in a small Texas town, which means I can probably out-cuss, out-shoot and out-drink half of the female population. Whatever wild antics happened to most in college, I probably dabbled in by the time I was 17. We were raised to be unknowing tomboys, but dreamed of running away from our town to be true girlie girls. I'm just saying, I used to have to drive 20 miles to go to the nearest Target....which was the holy grail of girlie smelling products of my youth (Bath and Body Works was a pipe dream not showing up until I was 17 and college-bound). I still have clear memories of this citrus body spray from Target that I covetted and begged my mother to purchase - in my mother's world, dove soap and oil of olay facial lotion is enough of a scent, citrus body spray was too enticing for young hormonal boys for me to actually own.

So despite my current smart-ass, urban, young professional lifestyle - I have a disturbing soft spot for any type of overly sweet bath/shower product. I have a collection of items ranging from Target to L'Occitane, ranging from borderline sickening cotton candy smells to elegant locally made lavenders. So one day, as I was doing a quick shopping trip at Macy's, I noticed the Lush cosmetics area was having a sale.

For those not in the know, Lush Cosmetics is all naturally hand made products that focus on how environmentally friendly and non-animal testing they are. I started perusing some items and finally settled on their 'Porridge" and "Honey I Washed the Kids" soap and a bath bomb. Now, the bath bomb reminded me of the bath fizzies I used to get for Christmas back in the 90's, so clearly I had to purchase. Now, I love the soaps, they are gentle and leave a nice refreshing smell...are they worth $35/lb...no, but my pieces were both about $7 a piece and I was willing to test them out for effectiveness. But our true focus should be this bath bomb.

I won't lie. It smelled like heaven. Deliciously soft, slightly sweat pea-ish. So, last night being a Wednesday, seemed like a good enough of a reason to use it. I fill my tub and throw the bomb in...I did like the fizzing of the bomb (I had flashbacks of my grandparents drinking Alka-Seltzer)and the pink and blue colors of the bomb developed an interesting shade of grape kool-aid colored water. So in I hop and enjoy a nice scented bath of happiness while reading a new book (Kay Hooper's Blood Ties). All in all, not a bad hump day ending.

Then, as I'm drying off, I see myself glistening like Edward Cullen...wait...what?! I do a double take and start scrubbing a little harder with my towel. Um...apparently in the center of my lovely girlie smelling gift from the heavens was some irridescent glitter. I glance into my bathtub and notice it too is shimmering as if Lisa Frank designed it. Mind you, this was around 7pm last night (yes, early, I know, but I was anticipating a great Criminal Minds season premiere so I had to indulge early). In my brain , I assumed it would all flake off in the night between my pj's and all the manic tossing and turning I do at night.

This is my collar bone at 10am....at work...trying to be all professional and chatting with Gods people about their websites.... Awesome :-/

Growing Up and Out

**Not weight loss related at all**

So...I sort of had a 'come to Jesus' moment a few weeks back, and starting exploring the quality of the people in my life. It's basically a slap into reality when you have several life-long friends, stop, look at you and go "Hey, you know I really don't get your friend X, all they do is puts you down" or "Hey your friend Z is a big classless mental whore, what's that about?". Let's be clear about something. I'm one of the least judgemental people in the world. If someone I am friends with happens to be a big whore, I don't much care, cause I'm not about to be slutting it up with him/her (too much Catholic guilt). If I feel he/she is a good person at their core, then I'm all for being friends and tend to explain why I don't think giving a bj on every first date is a good idea (#truestory).

But here's the thing. I'm not really down for acting like a drunken college kid at this stage of my life. I'm not struggling with a minimum wage job while still trying to live like I'm Carrie Bradshaw. I'm working on my fitness, loving my well-paying young professional job and weighing my options for a real adult relationships. Yeah, I'm working on my fitness/eating habits, but for the most part I really do like myself as a person. I've worked hard to get where I wanted to get. And there are friends who don't seem to be growing at the same mental pace as I am. Part of me feels like I'm being a bitch for thinking like this.....

But then another part of me thinks, no, this is just my path now. I'm not abandoning every friend. Just 2. And it sucks, because at their core, they are great, kind people. But they have more growing to do...and I can't wait for them to grow...because I honestly don't know if they ever will. They are content to live their life as is.

Either way, it makes me sad, but I know it's what I'm needing to do at this stage of my life.

Down a pants size

I survived a 2-hour Zumba class on Saturday. Around the one hour mark, I switched to drinking water mixed with Gatorade and I think that helped. According to Jerry (instructor) the class would burn anywhere from 1000-1500 calories. INSANITY, but I did it...and had a great little nap later that day.

I am running into a problem with Zumba and Weight Watchers.... I'm usually not hungry after Zumba, but wake up the next morning absolutely ravenous! It's throwing off my points. Given my diagnosed OCD, I end up freaking out when I have only 4 points left by 3pm...thinking I might switch to classic calorie counting, but I'm not sure yet. With exercise, I know my body tones up and slims down, but I know the weight loss could go faster if I get the eating thing down, just not sure what the best option is for me.........

In other fun news, I needed new pants for work and ended up going down a size in pants. Yea me!!

Getting ready for an Indian Wedding

Some dear friends of mine will be getting married next month, so I had to go shopping for a dress. Since it will be a multi-cultural wedding, I wanted something that had some color because I know the Indian Sari's are just amazing!!

This is what I found:


I think I look freaking awesome in that dress. I don't know that I see 180 pounds there, so I'm totally geeked out over this dress.

I've been a terrible Zumba-er this week. I think I'm coming down with a cold or something, because my head has been killing me all week. It's hard to get excited and motivated to go bounce around to Zumba when you head is killing you. But I'm determined to go tonight. Then tomorrow Jerry (Zumba instructor) is doing a master class that's 2-hours long!!! Insane, but I want to try it...even if I crap out half way through, I might surprise myself. Gonna take lots of water and probably a protein bar to keep me going!!

So it begins

Hi, I'm Paige. I'm 29 years old, live in Houston, Texas and have a weight problem. Like many others, I've dealt with it all my life, though I don't think it really ever became an issue for me until after I finished college (in 2002).

In 2004, I had a lightbulb moment when I stepped on a scale and weighed 192 lbs (I'm only 5 ft tall). I jumped on the South Beach Diet bandwagon, got a personal trainer and whittled myself down to 148 lbs. So what happened? Apparently, if you lose weight quickly, it can throw your body into a tailspin and ta-dah!!! Gallstones. Had the surgery but it threw off my intense workout schedule and I never really could get back into the game of things.

So here we are, 2010, and I weigh 178 lbs. Whoa.

Why now? Well, here's my deep dark secret. I'm a groupie for a 1980's boy band...some may say THE definitive boy band, New Kids on the Block. (For the record, I give the definitive boy band status to New Edition...they did it right first, but I digress). Last Friday, I put my deposit down for the 2011 New Kids on the Block Cruise from Miami to the Bahamas departing May 12, 2011. My cabin mates are all awesome ladies I know from California...awesome and SKINNY ladies from California.

So about a month ago, I decided to start working on my health and fitness, deeming it "Operation: Cruise Control", am going to take it step by step with my first goal only being 5% of my weight. I've also joined a Zumba studio and am averaging 3 days a week...but would like to up that to 5 days.

Let's Get This!