HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BLOGGIES!!!

Oh how I've missed you! :)

Okay, so Sunday was a total write-off!! I was wiped!!! I couldn't function the entire day!!! So that just pushed things back one day...I DID NOTHING!! :)

Let me start from the beginning!! First off, I want to thank everyone who came out and celebrated with me on Saturday night. I had a wonderful evening and lots of fun. Thanks also to all of you who were with me "in spirit"!! I felt the love..Thanks!! :))

The Gifts:

Although all I wanted was your company, quite a few of you brought and sent gifts. Absolutely overwhelmed and over the moon with happiness. Thank you. See pix below... so beautiful. I love the quote on that journal; "life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that takes your breath away!"


I really spoiled myself that day:

• I got my hair done at Miss Gail's - thank you Abby for hooking it up, I LOVE THE CUT.

• I got my nails done in Orleans ( at a great new place that opened recently called "Nice One Nails" - loved the name so I had to check it out. They were great - thanks Jennifer).

• I got my make-up done by MAC.

• I bought a new dress and new shoes!!!

Yeah!!! I felt amazing!! Even though it was freezing cold, I decided to wear the "little" dress anyway!! It's a SIZE 13!!!! SIZE 13!!!!! One year ago, I wore a size 18/20 dress and size 22 pants!!!! Now, I'm in a teeny little size 13 dress. When I picked it up off the rack, I looked at it and thought, "oh hell no, there's no way this little thing will fit over my butt!!" I tried it on anyway and to my delirious surprise, IT FIT!!

OH btw, my camera died with the first picture I attempted to take at the restaurant so these pics were taken by my friend Coco (and her beau) - thanks guys. I am still awaiting a second set of pics from my other girlfriend. Will post as soon as I receive them - I was kind of hoping I'd have them prior to this post, but no biggie!!

Anyway, here I am all dolled up (before removing the little sweater):



I will post more shots once I get the pics from my other friend. In the meantime, I've posted about 50 pics from this set of pictures on the Event page on the Facebook group (Joania's Weight Loss Journey) so you could check them out there. I also created an album on my Facebook page.

My trainer Rob came to the celebration dinner as well, with his beautiful girlfriend (sorry ladies - but at least she's beautiful inside and out). Anyway, I was so happy that he was able to make it as I truly believe that this was "our" celebration and not just mine. Here are some pics.

The student (yours truly) and the Teacher (my trainer Rob):



I tried to get a shot with each person as they came in so I will have quite a few more pics to post and I will as soon as I receive the other batch of pictures.

Dinner & Cocktails

Believe it or not, I had a pretty healthy meal. Blackened salmon, steamed veggies and dirty rice (rice mixed with ground beef, sausage, spices etc - creole style). Anyway, I ate the salmon and veggies and had literally one fork full of rice. I didn't even have dessert!! Not by choice, I was too busy consuming cocktails!! Lol!!! Cosmos and Jack Daniel shooters - now you know why Sunday was just a total write-off for me. But I was on such a high and simply had an amazing, incredible night!!! After the restaurant, I went to a dance club with a couple of friends and had a few more drinks there as well!! WOW!! What a night...my husband pretty well carried me home!! LOL!!! It was awesome!!

What Next??

Well, as much as I enjoyed my night, I knew I had to get right back on my wagon and I did!! Monday I woke up at 530am and hit the weights like usual...I had a renewed sense of power as I lifted each dumb bell!!It was phenomenal. I really do enjoy weight lifting. I just feel so strong.

After, I made breakfast and had an egg white omlet with veggies and a big cup of water. Got on with my day. At lunch time, I hit the dojo (gym) for my kickboxing class and worked it out!!! Ingrid really brought it with the cardio. I rocked it!! At 430, I was back for a second round of kickboxing!! I just felt like I had so much energy on Monday and wanted to take advantage of that and totally make it count and that I did!!

I had a slice of pizza for lunch - it was a team pizza lunch to help me celebrate my year anniversary on this incredible journey - where normally I would have eaten a minimum of 4 slices of pizza, I was quite content with 1 slice ...that was part of the reason I added the additional kickboxing session on that day. I felt really good. I ate healthy meals and consumed approx 4 litres of water for the rest of that day.

Today, Tuesday, I ate very well and had an amazing Jiu-jitsu (JJ) class with Sensei Derek and I have the bruises to prove it!! :) JJ class is getting increasingly more difficult and challenging as we learn more intricate techniques. It's really cool, I'm really learning some cool stuff and those break falls that once scared the living daylights out of me are not so bad anymore. I could see the amazing progress that I'm making!! Simply amazing - I am loving martial arts!! It's fun, bruises, pain, submission holds, throws and all!!

So I'm just continuing on with life, health and fitness. That's my plan for now. I am thinking of a bunch of new goals for 2010 and I'll tell you this, I really plan to challenge and push myself to my max. I truly want to see how far I could take this!! I'm excited!! More details to come...

So that's it for now...working on some new things but as always, you will be the first to know!!

Let me know what you think of the pics so far!!

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