THE NEW BLACK DISNEY PRINCESS!

SHE IS HERE!!!! And strangely enough it did feel affirming, uplifting, and just really damn good to see a princess that had a face like mine!

VEGAS

So Joseph and I took a FOOD EXTRAVAGAZNA vacation back to Las Vegas Oct 28th - Oct 31st!! That's right, while the ghost and goblins where out filling their trick or treat bags we were out filling our faces!! All diets out the window for a few days! And it was glorious.

While in Vegas we kicked off our DELICIOUS RAMPAGE with a trip to the worlds largest chocolate fountain at the Bellagio Hotel! Then we stuff are faces with ice cream at the Rio Buffet!

The "NO taco Bell" sign on the drive to Vegas cracked us up! Even we knew better than to stoop to that level of unhealthy food! lol

My lost Love

10lbs lighter and 2 months into my new "healthier eating" diet/life style change I learn that all my health food is starting to kill more than just calories and fat!

I can now kiss my favorite food goodbye! Pho! Oh Pho how I loved your abundance of noodles and your thinly sliced strips of beef!

But now I can no longer stomach Pho. Saturday Joseph and I went to try to treat ourselves just to find out that my body rejected even the thought of consuming that bowl of carbs and sodium. After two bites (the second one forced) I gave up desperately wanting a salad and fruit to show up instead.

Is being healthy worth the loss of joy in food?

Crooked Street goes Candyland CAKE

Photo: AP Hasbro Inc., Darryl Bush

"America’s most notorious crooked street got a makeover yesterday thanks to Hasbro toy company,..The occasion? It’s Candyland’s 60th birthday, so show some respect. Respect in the form of life-size playing board winding down Lombard Street and one hyperrealistic cake." - flavorwire.com


OH LORD THIS WAS MY FAVORITE GAME AT MY BEST FRIEND KIMS HOUSE! This cake blows my childhood mind! Who wouldn't want this cake at their wedding!?





Photo: Ted Weinstein/SFist
Via SFist.

OBAMA HAIRCUT!!

AWESOME! How Do you beat this? democraticunderground.com

Time-lapse Video of the Los Angeles Wildfire

Timelapse - Los Angeles Wildfire from Dan Blank on Vimeo.

kitsunenoir.com

THE NEW WEDDING VENUE

One Pound of Fat VS. One Pound of Muscle

"One pound is a lot. If you feel discouraged about “only losing a pound,” then go to the grocery store and find a pound of meat or a pound of butter and notice how MUCH you have lost." - Starling Fitness Blog

Starling Fitness said it best. Lol. I have been working out now for 5 weeks and lost 8lbs! Unlike the lumpy fat blob above my body is slowly taking a very nice smooth shape.....slowly! haha

WEDDING VENUE LOST/CRISIS

We Learned Sunday that after a year of booking our wedding site that we can no longer have our wedding at that location. As horrible as it may sound to find this out so far into planning it was even worse for some brides who had wedding planned this weekend!

 

We dont have such a bad taste in our mouth from this event however. We are actually praying he gets his permits and comes back online! I love his location and pray pray pray I can have my venue back!

MY WEDDING CAKE CHEEKS

So as soooon as I get all this weight off... I plan to eat it ALLLL back on our wedding day! For now all I can do is dream about the crazy type of cake we might have....awwww (my fav is the sushi cake!)







They say you are what you eat... What if you had to where what you ate!. Lol This would have been my dress 2 weeks ago for sure!

ROADRUNNER SHOE STORE

"A pronated foot is one that rolls inward when walking or running and does not properly pass the weight over the foot. This creates a biomechanical problem that stresses the foot and lower leg. The knee and hip are affected as well because of the inward rotation of the leg."
http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/footcare/foot3353.html

So this is also called being "flat footed". So when I went to got my new running shoes at roadrunner they had the coolest store! They have you run on a treadmill and tape your feet as you run so you can see how your foot strikes the ground. I missed getting a picture of my feet, but above is a look at another customer's. If you had seen my foot you would have seen my foot look like it was gonna snap in half my ankle rolls in so much! Lol.


Thank god I have my new orthotics and shoes to help corrected. They are the reason I can run farther now!

I RUN! I RUN (monday's work out)

YUPPPP!!! I RAN! I missed my Monday pilates because of a doctor appointment, so I asked Joseph if I could go with him on his daily run at the beach. I thought for sure my knee was gonna give out on me before I even got 100 yards.

But to both mine and Joseph's surprise I made it pretty far. The total trail we did was 1.5 miles (one way) he says. I had walked the middle of it as my knee had begun to hurt, but I managed to run the beginning and last leg. It seems as if my knee is a bit stronger than last week!

I am also down 5lbs! I hear when you run it is like 4x your body weight for your knees and feet. So if I lost 5lbs I like to assume me knee feels like I lost 20lbs! Lolol.

THIS WIN ONLY MAKES TUESDAY'S WORKOUT/WIN EVEN BETTER! SEE POST BELOW.

SUCK IT 6.4 MILES! (tuesday's workout)

That's right, I said suck it! That goes out to all the concrete, hills, bugs, sunshine, heat, and my knee that tried to keep me from making it to the end of Lake Murray's (one way) 3.2 lake side trail! Suck it I made it! HAAAAaaaaaaaaaaA!

Sure it took me 2 hours! Lol but that not the point here people. Sure I had to slow the pace sometimes from my 80year-old feeling hip, but again we are gonna focus on the fact that I finished!

What's that?...am I sore?... Well lets just say that I used icy-hot as lotion this morning! ..but again I FINSIHED!!!

Thanks Ciara and Ivette for walking with me, and Kim for the encouragement!

WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING!

So I have been putting all this effort into "eating right", into making this "lifestyle change", and all the while some of my closest food friends have been undermining my efforts!! Just straight playing mind games with me! Just hurts my heart thinking about it!

MY first BACKSTABBER....
The Ocean Spray Craisin! Oh yes this wonderfully delicious fruit that just makes a salad a little slice of heaven has been hiding its sugar content from me!! My doctor informed how a handful of these and I might has well of had a chocolate bar!!!!!!!! A CHOCLATE BAR PEOPLE!!? I COULD OF HAD A CHOCOLATE BAR and still needed to work out! Awwwwww...... Let us compare:

The OCEAN SPRAY CRAISIN!











HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE BAR

NEW RUNNING SHOES

Friday I finally went and bought the new shoes my doctor had been urging me to buy for the last 6months. He said my old Nikes were not the right fit anymore. I was reluctant to part with my fly ass $100 Nikes because they made me feel cute, even when the mirrors at the gym said I was fat! Lol some days those shoes were they only thing getting me to the gym! lol



So I have been breaking in the new Sauconys to get them ready to take on my Tuesday/Thursday walks around Lake Murray. The Lake Murray trail is 3miles to the end (one way.) So far I have only made it a couple of yards pass the 2.5mile mark before needing to turn around and head back (knee breakdown). (5miles, plus the .5 miles walk from outside the park from my sorority sister’s house down the block.)

At this point I would say the new shoes are still growing on me.

I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN!

One small step for me!
So this morning I stood staring into my refrigerator struggling with my craving to add my new fav yogurt to my lunch sack. The YoCrunch from BREYERS. I bought these pre-san starch diet. The chocolate toppings where my perfect answer to my sweet tooth cravings. These are what help keep me from falling "off the wagon" and back into easy fast food and bad habits.

But I believe these are not allowed right now. This no starch diet is only for 3 months. Doctor says it will help shock my body into reconfiguring how it breaks down and stores fat and sugar, at the same time teaching me to be less dependent on so many starches.

If I could stick to going to the gym 4-5times a week I probably would not need such a GI-JOE diet to help me, but in the last 4weeks "something kept coming up" and I was barely making 2 days.

THE AQUA FIT CLASS!

THE AQUA FIT CLASS!
I'm trying to lose weight because of my bad knees. However, so many of the highest calorie burning work out classes or routines require good knees! Feeling limited in what I could do I quickly became bored of my workouts.

So yesterday I tried the Aqua Fit class. It has been a while since I was in a pool so it was such a shock to realize I would be able to do a whole aerobic workout with out my knees being "ON FIRE". There is almost no impact on your joints! Even my back got a well deserved break from the weight of my..."front." lol.

The 2 Downsides To Aqua fit:
1) The aqua work out was not as intense as my pilates or walking routine. I would have liked to been dead beat tired or hungry walking out of the pool. Instead I had a delayed reaction and the tiredness pounced on me like a ton of bricks at home 3hours later! So I'm not sure if it was the aqua fit class or just my body reacting to having 3 straight days of work outs, while mostly running on salad and fruit.

2) After having spent 1 wonderful hour in the closest thing to zero gravity possible, the HORRIFIC REALITY SHCOK of my body's actual weight when I got out of the pool was almost too much to bare! HOLY CRAP...no wonder I have knee problems! QUICK BACK IN THE POOL! BACK IN THE POOL PEOPLE! Lol

STILL ROCKING

Still Rocking the salads at lunch! Today I try the Aqua Fit classes at the gym. YES THE ONE FOR OLD LADIES! lol...it will help keep stress off my knee. After my 5.75mile walk last night I went and bought some board shorts for the class for $20 at Big 5. I didn't want to discourage myself by trying on cute bathing suits that wont fit.

The GOAL: STICK TO 5-DAY WORK-OUT PLAN:
MONDAY: 15-20min elliptical warm-up , Pilates 1hr class, Knee rehab weight routine.

TUESDAY: Walk Lake Murray with already skinny girlfriends. They walk way faster than me! Lol keeps me on my toes. (4.5 miles or until knee starts to hurt.)

WEDNESDAY: 15-20min elliptical warm-up, Aqua Fit class, Knee rehab weight

THURSDAY: Walk Lake Murray with already skinny girlfriends. (try to walk faster or farther)

FRIDAY: 15-20min elliptical warm-up, Aqua Fit class, Knee rehab weight

EVERDAY BATTLE

So with my new "NO STARCH" diet, I am trying to fit in as much exercise as possible. The goal is lose weight and strengthen my body so that my knees wont be under so much stress. That stress has cause me a lot of pain and limited the amount of physical activities I can do. For example if I dance longer than 1 minute my knees will swell then feel like the are "ON FIRE!"

So obviously running, soccer, kickboxing, cardio classes, or any other activity that I would not do anyhow, I now could not do even if I wanted to! Lol. But more importantly my first dance on my wedding day! I gotta be able to get down!

Here are some of the things in my daily life at work that help me stay in shape:
1) My desk is on the 4th floor! I climb these stairs at least once I day...the rest of the day I try to regain my breathing! Lol
2) The view from the top of the stairs! Worth the climb!
3) The gym at my office located on the bottom floor. That looks out at that same view! Just started their today.
4) AND Finally my new desktop wallpaper. That's right it's fruit. Cool fresh looking fruit.



Can you see "relax shoulders" sticky on my computer? A direct order from my Chiropractic Dr. Berkoff. Best doctor ever! He was treating me for my knees and my the back injury I got from having my car hit back in December. I think I am the slowest healing patient he has ever had. Lol.

OH YEAH CHECK ME OUT

Oh Yeah Check Me out! Another successful Lunch! Later I will be following up this great lunch with a 4.5 mile walk with my friends around lake Murray here in San Diego. Takes me about an hour to do that walk (my knees are still recovering from "runners knee".)

LUNCH:
-Chicken Brest cooked with bell peppers and BBQ sauce (thanks to my Husband/Fiancee)
-Grapes & Strawberries
-Green Salad with Almonds, Cranberries, and Balsamic Vinaigrette

FOUND "THE" PHOTOGRAPHERS

AFTER 9 MONTHS OF SEARCHING!!!!
I'm so glad to say I finally picked a Photographer for the wedding!
www.theimageisfound.com

Being a graphic Designer, who works with digital images all day, it was EXTREMELY important to find "THE" photographer who I felt I could trust to capture all the quirkiness that is our relationship, while simultaneously being original in color and composition. In many ways picking my photographer was more like the dress experience for me.

Check out their blog www.theblogisfound.com
Now all I have to do is stick to my new diet, so my wonderful photographers won't have to Photoshop my Cake Cheeks out! Lol

STILL AT IT

Continuing with my new eating habits, here is what I had for dinner last night. I went to the store and bought EVERYTHING that makes a salad taste great. I know the calorie count in some of the dressings are crazy but baby steps. Baby steps.

CAKE CHEEKS

So it is less than a year to my wedding, and I need to lose weight. I have somehow grown these great big “little -kid -love –cake” cheeks! And to top it off I’m having more trouble than ever getting the weight off. So my doctor put me on a “no starch” diet and told me to keep a food diary.

THIS MEANS:NO crackersNO cookiesNO RollsNO breakfast cerealsNO pancakes or wafflesNO riceNO pastaNO potatoesNO snack foods, NO fat-free, sugar free frozen yogurt, NO corn or peas.

I started on Thursday July 30^th, and when I weighed myself today after Pilates class I had lost 2lbs! This is the most the scale has moved in the last 4 months!Let see if I can keep it up.Here is a before and after of my eating habits! lol