Happy New YOU!!! :)

HAPPY NEW YOU!!!! It's a new year, let's make it great and do all we can to become a happier, better, healthier, sexier YOU!! :)

In my previous post, I outlined what would be my fitness goals for 2010. I also wanted to list some of my overall goals. The reason I wanted to this is because I feel it's all connected....it's all about striking that balance and I think that achieving my fitness goals will feed into my achievement of my overall goals as well. With that, here they are! My Top 5 goals for 2010!!

1. I want to live a balanced life. This will include strengthening my relationship with God, being the best mom and wife that I can be, being a good family member and friend and continuing full force on this wonderful journey of lifetime fitness!!!
2. I want to clearly define fitness' place in my life. My goal is to give it a permanent home here with me and this year I plan to lay the groundwork to make that happen.
   
3. I want to put a bit more focus on my career. To do something I thoroughly enjoy so it won't feel like work; you know, something I can be passionate about.
   
4. I want to continue to focus on the positive (this includes people and events).
   
5. I want to be more charitable. I want to help to make as many people feel as good about life as I currently do!
   

So, that's it!! That's my top 5 overall goals for 2010!!!

Until next time...here's wishing that this year brings you all that you wish and WORK for!! Happy New Year (and New YOU!)

Joania

Goal Setting: Believe to Achieve

I'm on a serious mission to succeed! I'm not only talking about by Dec 10, 2009; I'm referring to the rest of my life. I'm trying to lay out the blueprint for building my life the way I want it. As this year is quickly coming to an end, I want to be ready and as prepared as I can to continue strong as of Dec 11, 2009. I want to aim high, try things I've never tried before; commit myself to completing certain things as I did with the 5K run. Just getting out of my comfort zone. As LesBrown says, "shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars". So I'm currently in the research and planning stages....researching things that I am interested in or want to try (for example rock climbing, a mini-triathalon -"Try a Tri", joining a recreational sports team - soccer or baseball, taking tennis lessons) AND SO MUCH MORE and just planning out what I need to do to get there!!

I feel like I am so close to really breaking through and continuing on with my life - living the best life I can live! I feel there's just so much more to come and I want to live and enjoy all of it! I know it won't always be all good but right now it just feels like it will and I don't want to lose that. There's so much I want to do! I'm rambling...sorry...

Anyway, I had a good workout this morning but had to stay home with my son as he's under the weather and I think I may be coming down with it as well...cold symptoms. Hoping I can fight it off! I still have to make some time to meet with my trainer so that I could get my new program to propel me to that finish line! A lot of challenges have surfaced throuhgout this journey; from my travelling, exteme cravings and just overall busy life working fulltime and family. One of my biggest challenges have been and still remains, TIME!!! Making the time to workout, to prepare meals, to meet my trainer, to get to the gym, time for myself!!

I just started a new job a couple of weeks ago and just starting to get into it right now; I have a few deadlines this week that I MUST meet and quite a bit of work to do - so that's filling up the schedule right now. My husband is really busy with work so less available to pick up my slack with our son and at home. I said it so many times before, I could not have gone through this journey without my husband and his never ending support (in so many ways). All this to say that the next few weeks will be crazy busy for me. I'm hoping that I could meet up with Rob on the weekend, even if it's for 1/2 an hour to get the new program and instructions and be on my way..time is of the essence and I don't want to waste a minute.

So I'm going to check on my son (who should be sleeping - but probably isn't) and get myself off to bed. I've received a few requests to write my daily schedules down every now and then so I will try to that. Here are my plans for tomorrow ( which is the same on Thursday) I will do Monday and Wednesday's tomorrow)...

5:45am Wake up (have a cup of water)
Start my cardio (a 45 minute walk/run on treadmill - too cold outside in the am now)

6:30am Make breakfast (4 egg white/spinach omlette) and either eggs and toast or cereal
(for my son and hubby)

7:00am Wake up the boys, shower get ready as they eat

7:30 - 7:45am Get my son ready as hubby cleans up downstairs andgets ready (a joint effort - we make a good team)

8:00 - 8:15am Leave the house, drop son to daycare, head to work (both hubby and I)

9:ooam - Start work

10:30am Have morning snack (apple and 5-8 almonds, water)

11:45 -12:45 Jiu-jitsu class (drink water)

1:15pm Back to work....eat lunch at my desk while working (steamed broccoli and chicken breast, water)

3:00-3:30pm Afternoon Snack (boiled egg, cucumber slices, water)

5:00pm Leave work for home (hubby would have picked up son from daycare)

5:45pm Make dinner

7:00 -8:00 Playtime

8:00-8:30 Get my son ready for bed

9:00 - 10:00pm Weight Training

10:00-11:oopm Shower, Blog and BED!!!!

I only do cardio on Jiu-jitsu days.....on kickboxing days (Monday, Wednesday) - no cardio!! :)

As you can see the days are quite long and full; not much time to spare, hence the reason why my weekends are my time for family. We try to pack a lot of things in for the weekend - just making sure to spend some quality time making memories. Crazy life but fun, nonetheless.

Anyway, that's it for now...

Until next time...
Joania (2KMINE!!!)

Weigh-in Saturday ~ Week 44

Starting Weight: 258 lbs (Dec 10/08)
Last Weigh In: 191 lbs (Oct 10/09)
Current Weight: 188 lbs (Oct 17/09)
This Week's Loss: 3 lbs

Great week!! Great Loss!!

70 POUNDS GONE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm absoulutely THRILLED with the loss this week!! 3 POUNDS!!! I now weigh 188lbs!!! 188lbs!!! I am out of the 190's!! I also hit another reward level, another milestone!! I will be planning a weekend getaway (more details to follow). 188!! I can't believe it.

Where has the time gone??? Although my "deadline" (for lack of a better word) is fast appoaching, I WILL definitely continue on this journey!! This journey will be for life and I am looking forward to it....I can't and I WILL NOT go back. I am starting to think of my new goals, new objectives because come Dec 10, 2009, I want to ensure that I am prepared and that I have planned for the next phase of this journey - the lifelong phase, which I believe will be the most difficult of all. To be honest, I don't see how it will be really different from what I'm doing currently.

My plan is just to continue on, striking that balance with everyday life and my new lifestyle. That is the reason it was so important for me continue with my life throughout this past year on this journey. I did not want to put my life on "hold" while I was on this journey. I have made quite a few sacrifices over the past while and I realize that those sacrifices were warranted, however I did enjoy my life and friends and events, special occasions etc. I didn't go nuts and I think that has helped me to keep my sanity and move forward and that will help me as I continue on to the next phase. This is one of the things that has worked for me and works for me - it may not work for everyone.

Until next time....

Joania (2KMINE!!!)

ST. PATTY'S & MY GIRLFRIEND JB....

This individual has been my friend for 20+ years and together, we've done a lot of fun and crazy things which will bring us to tears as we laugh about it, to this day!! It doesn't take much to get us going! I cannot imagine my life without her...anyway, this is not intended to be a sappy post. I can just see her face as she reads this laughing to herself and probably saying, "I can't believe she's writing about me and our craziness in her blog!!" or something to that effect!

Anyway, JB and I absolutely LOVE St. Patrick's Day!!! Well, maybe it's more the festivities that we like because if any one of us were quizzed on the history or origin of St. Patty's - we'd fail miserably!! I'm certain all of our responses would include either "leprechaun" or "green beer"!! It has been our longstanding tradition of just getting together and "doing it up right" on St. Patty's Day. For us, the festivities usually starts very early in the afternoon and goes strong until the wee hours of the morning!!

In the past, this involved the consumption of "a few" beverages, followed by a few more and so on and so on until very early the following morning where we'd ALWAYS end up asking the taxi driver to take us to the 24-hour drive thru McDonalds, where we ordered a massive amount of greasy, fatty food. I'm talking, double Big Macs, Supersize Fries, Coke and Apple Pies!!! I swear, it's the only thing we wanted to eat after a day on the "liquid diet" and it was just AMAZING! Can anyone relate to this, or are we just nuts?? Anyway, that's how we would normally spend St. Patty's Day, in the past!

This Year...

I will be in Edmonton on business on St. Patty's Day!! This year, on St. Patty's Day, I will have just completed my third straight month on this wonderful journey following a highly effective, customized diet and exercise plan which does not include my traditional "St. Patty's Day Food and Beverage Choices"!!!! THIS YEAR, on St. Patty's Day, although I will be in Edmonton, SO WILL MY GIRLFRIEND JB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know if was fate or if it was planned (I WILL never tell!!) but we will BOTH be in Edmonton on St Patty's Day and I think it was meant to be...

Oh, what to do????

First off, my girlfriend in no way wants to sabbotage my journey and has been extremely supportive from the very beginning and even before!! So "what I do" will be totally my decision...we could have a good time either way..Honestly, there is no pressure from her at all!! I just don't want anyone thinking that she's sabbotaging me in anyway!!!

So here are some facts:

1. I have been just amazing on this diet and exercise plan, and for the most part (except those 4 choc eggs recently), I've stayed true.
   
2. I didn't have cake or alcohol on my 35th birthday!!
   
3. I didn't have any chocolate on Valentine's Day!!
   
4. So far this year I've done very well and 3 months is a very long time.
   
5. I have all intentions of remaining on this journey and reaching my goals by Dec 2009!

I've always said that I don't want this new lifestyle to consume me and I also don't want to miss out on my life and things I enjoy doing because of it even though I realize and accept that I do have to make a lot of sacrifices and give up certain things....so I'm in yet another position where I have to make a huge decision regarding either food, chocolate, alcohol or all of the above!!! I also don't want to always have to be in these types of positions. I want to be able to just live and enjoy my life while respecting the boundaries of my program. It's all about finding that balance and learning how to live within it....I think that's a bigger struggle than losing the weight, itself - for me anyway!

So that's it for now....as always, I will be honest in whatever I do; with whatever decision I make regarding St. Patty's Day!! You will be informed...either way!!

Until next time...

Joania (2KMINE!!!)

What Women Want....

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy this week is over....I "almost" fell off the wagon a bit with that whole "Easter Bunny/chocolate eggs" fiasco. No big deal, as my trainer put it, "it did more to your head than your body so forget about it, it never happened!" and I like Patricia's comment that it's "FOUR-givable" :) **smiles** When I started this journey, I knew there would be bumps in the road and I'm thankful for all the support I have from you guys to help get me through - but no worries, I'm back on track!!

Anyway, I had a conversation with a few of my female friends at work today and found it so enlightening and rather fascinating. I told them I would write about it - not sure they believed me, but I'm a woman of my word!!

Somehow, we got on to the topic of weight and what we like/dislike about our physical appearances etc... One of my friends - and in the name of anonymity, let's call her "Coco". First off, let me describe her. Coco is stunning!! Tall, lean, beautiful, confident, amazing features, fashionable, a body most women would cut off a limb for and on top of that, she's smart, has an incredible sense of humour and just an all around nice person. Well guess what? She doesn't like her stomach - her incredibly flat (to me) stomach!When you could lift up your shirt and see ONE smooth surface instead of 2 or 3 bumps...you don't have a problem (lol- just bugging you Coco). She wants to lose a few pounds. I told her I wanted to smack her, she's hot so shut up!! (I love her, really I do).

However, the more I spoke to her and listened to her rationale, the more I could relate with what she was saying and realized that who the heck am I to tell her that she doesn't need to...if she wants to improve herself and do something that will make her feel better, then she should and I should encourage her. Even though I think she's fine the way she is, I realized this whole weight/image thing is all individual and as long as it's not something unhealthy, then cool. I'm sure some people think I'm nuts for embarking on MY journey. So thanks Coco.

My other friend who we'll call, "Paris" (heehee), I think she is equally beautiful. She has a great body, fashionable, friendly, confident, extremely talented, (I told you she was funny)! Of course we laughed but she was serious...now, I don't think she'll go to drastic measures for the sake of boobs but my point with sharing all this is that I found myself amongst what I considered 4 very beautiful women, but we all had an issue or issues with how we looked in some way or another and it got me thinking!! The other two didn't share there "flaws" (if you can even call it that) but they were nodding and in obvious agreement with what was being discussed. One of them - let's call her, "Lola" agreed with me that Coco is hot and does NOT need to lose weight. But I've had discussions with that Lola before, similar to this one, and I know she has some stuff that she doesn't like either. She is also a very beautiful, confident and smart woman - friendly and nice. I just don't get it!! I guess I'll never really know what we women want.

I guess we all have little things about ourselves that we'd like to change and that's okay as long as it's not taken overboard or too far. This got me thinking that even though my main reasons for starting this journey was to get healthy, I still do like the physical changes that I'm seeing. I mean, I liked how I looked before and I am now finding that I am liking how I'm looking even more!!! What will I think when I look at myself in 6/7 months from now, after losing more weight?? Will I be satisfied with what I see OR will I be saisfied enough with FEELING great and BEING healthy? Will I start picking at little things and wanting to change them - I certainly hope not.

I'm am learning so much on this journey and not just how to do a proper push-up and eat well balanced meals. I am learning that this journey is as much mental and spiritual as it is physical. My goal is to strive for that balance between the three: mental, spiritual and physical. Someone once told me in an email, "if you get your head right, your ass will follow!" and that always stuck in my mind. For me it will be, "if I get my HEAD and SPIRIT/HEART right, my ass will follow!!" I am striving for that balance.

Anyway, that's it...what are your comments on what we women want and why it's so hard to be satisfied..I don't know... am I being hypocritical even talking about this when I myself am not currently satisfied with how I am?? I know for me, physical appearance is very low on the list of "why I'm doing this" but it IS ON THE LIST. Would love to hear what you guys think....

Until next time...

Joania (2KMINE!!!)