Fat Girl in the House!

So I went to my 3rd kickboxing class this week.. and after I finished and went to work and did a bunch of stuff and was driving back from the bank I realized that I had been discriminated against by the girls that I shared the kickboxing bag with. It was a full class, I got my bag early and I shared my bag with two other girls. I think I was one of the "stockiest" (shall we say) girls in the room.... all the others were skinny (or scrawny - LOL!), and so we had at the class. The music started and we were punching and kicking. I stopped about 20 minutes in to have a drink of water and one of the girls said "we're almost done"... like I was giving up or something. I said, "OK". I guess because I turn red. I always turn red, it's just what I do. So we kept kicking and punching. The class was hard, but not that hard. The martial arts class that I had on Wednesday was HARD!! Swinging Kettlebells, is HARD!!! This stuff is nothing compared to that! So I was watching each of them, one by one.. huffing and puffing... stopping and getting water, bending over to catch their breath until ultimately I lost both of my bag partners. They both left early... they couldn't hang with the fat girl!

I think when people automatically think that you are out of shape because of your shape and... being invisible are two of the biggest things that piss me off about my body shape.

So bring it on Bitches!!

I guess I need to work on that?! LOL!!

Workouts 11-9-09 & 11-10-09

11-9-09

9:15am to 10:00am Cardio Kickboxing

6:30pm to 7:15pm Martial Arts

Coffee/real cream
leftover pork/creme fraiche/bacon (made by our friend from Germany)
fage yogurt/honey crisp apple 1/2
guacamole, homemade tortillas (2)
Chayote tamale
1/3 cup Ben & Jerry's boysenberry sorbet
1 gallon water

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
11-10-09

5:45pm to 6:00pm Kettlebells - 12kg 210 swings.. then I pooped out!! Kind of a slow start, but a start. I have a plan to increase my swinging. I'm taking it from the "Swing Queen's" playbook Tracy Reifkind. I know I have it in my to push through but I thought I'd start slow since I'm already worn out from starting kickboxing again and doing 4 days of martial arts. I've been doing pushups and the kicks are giving me some sore hamstrings... they feel sore but not bad.

coffee/real cream
fage yogurt, 1/2 honey crisp apple
matzo cracker/butter
2 slices of sliced turkey from deli/1 slice of horseradish cheddar cheese
Barefoot Contessa recipe for oven roasted chicken (yummy recipe)... chicken breast and roasted vegetables
1 gallon of water

I feel really motivated, but really tired.. but in a good way. I need to keep moving or I will just sit here and stay on the computer! It feels really good to swing the bell again... it doesn't hurt me in any way, I just need to build up my stamina. YAY!!!

Life is Good

Not much blogging going on, but a lot of life going on. I was going to title this blog post something like.. beginning again or something like that, but that wouldn't be accurate because I've been doing quite a lot! I'm moving along in martial arts. I'll be testing for my next belt on December 10th. I'll be a Yellow Belt. Quite an accomplishment for someone that hasn't tested in forever!! There are a group of women that have come together and we cheer each other on. We're about the same age and it helps to get each other to class and we work together on our kicks and punches and techniques. It makes is easier when you feel like you want to quit. I'm really enjoying myself and while I need a lot of work and absolutely everything, I'm relaxing into it a lot more and not being so hard on myself as I was in the beginning and now know that it's a process. I'm tired a lot, but it's a good tired. My body is getting used to the moves and is liking it all.

The next piece of the puzzle that I'm adding back into my routine is my other love... kettlebells! Greg and I were so happy to have our friends Mark and Tracy Reifkind stay with us a few weeks ago (we don't get to see them enough!) and while they were we had a living room KB seminar. It was so fun! Everyone got a turn having their swing critiqued by Tracy and Mark!! I miss swinging so much and since I've had some issues... Mark addressed that as well and I swear he fixed me! I really see myself being fixed. I get so mad at the time I waste with doctors. It's hard to be mad at them because they mean well.. but they just are so damn clueless!

But the good news is that I feel really great! I've had a major breakthrough in the way my body feels. It's improved my sleep, the way I move and what I can do for my exercise... and that means swinging!! Very, very exciting.

Also when Tracy is here she inspires me not only in movement but in cooking. She is such a natural cook and I am very intimidated by her skills since I am self taught and do everything backwards... it usually gets the job done, but I don't usually use much in the way of spices... part of that is due to one of the medications that I am on...it skews the taste buds (which I think I'm going to get myself off of... I won't need it once I am better.. right?!)

but I've always been a cook, I just like the way that Tracy cooks. Tracy incorporates so many more wonderful vegetables that I haven't even considered. When she was here she taught me how to roast Butternut Squash. Seems simple enough, right? Well, I'd never done it before. It's wonderful! I made it again last night for a friend along with some Chile Verde Pork Shoulder in the pressure cooker, of course! LOL.. It was really yummy and my friend thought I was a genius. I'm sure that Tracy would have added some extra pizazz to it. I was trying to think of the extras I could have added... but it was a last minute meal and it tasted pretty dang good. That's probably the biggest obstacle for me is my lack of planning. I'm still fighting my fatigue and so I end up not having everything I need or maybe from inexperience I don't know what goes together. I'm sure I'll figure it out. Bottom line is that everyone had a good dinner... The pressure cooker ROCKS as usual! I'm so lucky to have good friends like Tracy and Mark and thankful that I'm feeling really good again!

:)

House cleaner Splurge didn't quite work out :)

Sooooo....my last post I mentioned that I was going to hire someone to clean my house a couple times a month to help me out. Well we were all ready to have her start on Tuesday. She met with us on Sunday afternoon and she seemed really fine and ready to go.. but when Tuesday morning rolled around things got a little strange. You know sometimes when you get a feeling about things? The night before for some reason I had a thought that she might not show up.. I'm not certain why, but it just popped into my head.





She showed up alright...I saw her park her car. We had the front door open and she walked up onto the deck but not quite all the way to the door. She stood there for a moment and I thought that possibly she forgot something so I left her alone. Greg saw her walk up and down the stairs twice and finally I saw her get into her car and drive away. Very strange.





Again, I thought...giving her the benefit of the doubt...that possibly she forgot something at home. But I finally told Greg that I had the feeling that she really didn't want to do the work for us for some reason. I walked to the back of the house and I guess the phone rang and it was her. She told Greg that she had come to the front door and it was closed (untrue), she had rang the doorbell three times (untrue)...and Greg told her that we were here waiting for her.. then she said something like "let's just leave it at that, thank you".. very strange!





I guess I'll be doing my own cleaning for the time being... dang! :) Oh well, I need to just snap to it!!

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Looks like I'll be testing for my next belt on September 24th. This will bring me to my Orange/stripe. I've been an Orange belt for about 6 years due to illness and other obstacles so I'm very anxious to move ahead. The next test will be in December which I should test for my Yellow belt and I'm hoping by my next birthday to be a Green belt. To me that would be soooo awesome to be that far along in my training... it would mean so much to me and my health... but just this itty bitty test this next Thursday is a big deal to me. Since it's been so long and I have such stage fright, I just have got to get through this.. cross your fingers for me!

:)

Tired and Sore... Oh My!

I've been cooking, cleaning and working... also fighting off a virus or some such thing for the past week and a half. We just sent our neice on her way with her Mother, Grandmother and her sister this morning. They all stayed at the house last night which was nice, but we don't have guests a lot and rarely four at a time so I was rushing around getting everything ready for everyone.

I get embarrassed about my house because I'd like to have a nicer one, but I don't...and I'd always like it to be cleaner and more organized...but it isn't.... and I'd like to have more energy to do the projects in my head to decorate it cuter... but I don't. So I just did what I could, made it comfortable for them. Cooked them Mexican food like they requested and homemade brownies for the girls.. So it was nice.

We had a birthday party to go to this afternoon for a client/friend that I made a lemon drizzle cake to share this morning after they left. It was a nice party since I hadn't seen these people for a long time and we got to reconnect with one of my favorite doctors that was there too. Really nice people. We spent the whole time talking to him and his wife. We got back home just in time for Greg to watch the USC game.... I should take a nap before we have to go to his parents house to watch a movie.

I'm splurging on us if she will have us. We have a woman coming over to our house tomorrow to talk to us about cleaning our house once or twice a month. I don't have a big house or even a fancy house... but I'm seriously not very good at it or do I have the energy or the time. We are getting really busy at work and I'm training for my black belt (even if it IS a few years away...I still train four nights a week after working five days a week).... and I do physical therapy three times a week.. I run out of time... so we'll see if she wants to do it for us and it would be great to have someone to help me and then I can just focus on other things.

Farmgirl Fare: What To Do With All Those Green Tomatoes? Try My Salsa-Like, No Sugar Green Tomato Relish Recipe!

I have a bunch of green tomatoes and thought this was a GREAT IDEA! I'm going to try this.. Way better than making Fried Green Tomatoes.. don't ya think? LOL!! ;)

Farmgirl Fare: What To Do With All Those Green Tomatoes? Try My Salsa-Like, No Sugar Green Tomato Relish Recipe!

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Sunday - 9/6/09

I love this picture from the dojo. These are the dogs of our Hapkido Master that come in every day and are so good. They wait patiently behind the counter until it's time to go home. Somebody put a sparring helmet on them and shot this picture and it's so cute.. the others are dancing in the background.

So after my last post things got a lot better. I calmed down and went back to class and passed some of the things I needed to get through to get ready for my next test on September 24th. I'm super nervous and probably making a bigger deal out of the whole thing than I need to. But it's been over 4 years since I've done a test, so... that's what I'm going to do, make a big deal. A few tests under my belt (literally) and I'll probably be more calm about my tests and the whole process, but for now I'm neurotic and I really want to do a good job. I'm also trying to get my body to do things that it's not exactly easy for it to do right now. With all of the Physical Therapy that I've been going through... in fact my Physical Therapist told me specifically NOT to do martial arts... we think that she thinks that it's like WWF SMACK DOWN.. but it's not. My doctor does know that I'm doing it and he's fine with it as long as it doesn't hinder my progress towards fixing the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. I seem to be getting better.. so I'm still going. In fact I want to be doing more.. I'd love to add kettlebells to my routine, but I really don't think my form is that good and I'm not good at self correction and my husband isn't that good at it either (although if you ask him, he'd tell you he's an expert.. ha!). I'm hoping that Tracy and/or Mark when they visit in October will have time to give me some pointers to get me on the road to using the KB's again without injury.

I really feel I am an athlete but I am not living as one. My diet has gotten all wacked out since I tried eating a vegetarian diet for a while, but that didn't go so well. I was eating too much cheese and not getting enough protein because I seriously don't like tofu, which can be a problem. I like it OK as a food but I'm concerned about the estrogen value in it and so I really didn't want to eat that much of it. I just don't know what I was thinking. My diet was really good and I mucked it all up for a few months.. now I have to regroup and go back to what I was doing before. My energy is still pretty low and so cooking is what I really love to do.. but it's not easy when I feel crummy. I hate eating out.....and Greg doesn't really cook.. nothing that I like to eat anyway... so I just have to get my act together and muster up some kind of game plan if I want to have a decent meal.

So, priorities need to be set and my friend Tracy has always been a wonderful example for me and in my opinion for EVERYONE... although she has boundless energy which I only wish I had! Planning is key and that's what I'll do with our meals since Greg will eat what I eat and we both work out at the martial arts studio doing kickboxing and Hapkido. I'd love to do Yoga too... but I'm not able to at this time. I'd also like to add some walking to this as well. Work, gardening and house cleaning and that about rounds out the schedule for us. That will fill it up.

So... back to what works....at least what makes me feel good.