Set Backs

FUCK MY LIFE.

Ok, so I should be done with the Slim in 6 program...but I'm not. I got 2 weeks of it in, and had to stop.

My job sometimes sucks. People think I just sit behind a window and push a button but it's a lot more than that. On a daily basis at work, I slid patients. We use this plastic surfboard thing, slide it under their sheets and pull them over to the table. It fucking sucks.

I don't mind sliding people who really can't move, but 90% of the time it's because they're lazy. There I fucking said it! 

Mid May I injured my sternum. Costochondritis is inflammation of the cartilage around your sternum, and it hurt like a mother fucker. I couldn't sit properly, laugh, forget sleeping. It sucks. No matter how I moved,  it hurt. Once I started feeling better, I started getting active again. 

Low and behold, another injury.  My neck and left shoulder have been fucked up for almost 2 weeks now. My scapula still doesn't feel right. Sometimes my AC joint pops out of place, and I have to get it set back in. I've had this problem for a long time, but didn't think it related that much to my scapula. Apparently it does. It's hard to describe what it feels like, but the spine of my scapula hurts, I can't really rotate my arm without cringing. It's like when you break something, and you move it just right and have searing pain up or down it. I've barely got sleep in the past 2 weeks, I feel like I'm falling apart. This blows. I'm not a whimp either. I've broke my arm, both ankles multiple times, and have had to set my shoulder back in place myself. I walked on a broken ankle for a week before I decided to get it checked out, I thought I sprained it. Nope. I was stuck in a cast for 8 months. 

I swear, by the time I'm 40 I'm going to need a spinal fusion. I have a limited amount of people around once my shift goes into evenings, so getting more than one person to help out is a challenge. This week at work is going to be interesting, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

While I'm technically out of commission for who knows when, I'm still eating right and portion controlling. I set myself to a goal of losing a minimum for 3lbs/week. It's not that hard to do, I've done it before. Just have to stick with it! 

Wake up!

Back to work this week, and the struggle is REAL trying to get up in the morning.

I had a busy day yesterday. I decided to make an appointment with Tali, just to have reinforcement of being on track. I ended up seeing Tiffany the nurse, which is fine but it was the usual. I've been doing my Shakeology, which is fine for the guidelines of the program. She hooked me up with liquid Vitamin D drops, I'm off of the script she gave me. They're really into vitamins there, so I got some multivitamins and probiotic powder also. 

So I didn't gain as much weight as I thought. I weighed about the same since my last visit, which was in February. Either way, I can feel the weight back on me and I hate it. 

I got in touch with Alexis yesterday and she assured me it was okay if I didn't interact and post all the time in group. Thank god because I was worried I'd be kicked out or something, and I didn't want to seem like a jerk about it. Even if no one reads my blog, my entries keep me on track. Where there's a will, there's a way. I'm probably one of the most willful people you'll ever meet. 

Speaking of which, I got together with Stan yesterday and he said something that resonated with me so much. I'm just the type of person that always has a plan, and can make just about anything work. Which has been a giant asset to me, and my biggest downfall at the same time. Just for the simple fact, that I don't know when to stop. I'm getting better though, definitely learning a whole lot more. 

It's weird how even after relationships end and people leave your life, that you can still manage to learn from them. It's almost like a daily thing with me now, it's fucking crazy! But I'm really lucky to have the ability to realize that. Maybe that's what's been keeping me up at night, just thoughts about where my life is--and where it's going. I'm a firm believer in making random trips and vacations around. They make you feel alive again, that's how they make me feel at least. If you're lacking that buzz and feeling worn out, hop in your car and take a long drive. You might end up in another state, in a different city. Just make sure your tank is full, because we all know the hills have fucking eyes lol! 

I could have been a great many things in my life, and still have time to explore and take adventures. I'm itching for a new experience, a new chapter. In the meantime I'm working hard on getting back down towards my goal weight, and along the way I'm sure something will pop up.

What have you don't with yourself lately? Maybe it's time to wake up, pack a bag and hop in the car--no set destination. Just live. I wish more people could do that. 

Número Uno

Jesus.

Ok, so I woke up this morning and started my Slim in 6. Yesterday I did my Shakeology, and did some exercise on my own. 

My first impression of the "Start it Up" DVD. SLOW THE FUCK DOWN! LOL. So everyone is pretty much right about the cheesy music, although Debbie is pretty good. She just moves around, like she's got ADD. I know it's supposed to be aerobic exercise, and I'm an active person. I just felt like it was a little hard to get the moves down and keep up with her pace. I'm sure by the end of this week, I'll have all the moves down and keep up with no trouble. Interestingly enough, you can substitute the resistance bands for dumbells. Which is a nice! 

I chose the Slim in 6 program, because I'm not fit enough to do P90X or Insanity. In some time (six weeks I hope), I'll be able to! My goal for tackling this is to get my workout done before I go to work. I usually do my protein shakes in the morning anyway, so it just makes sense to workout and do the shake right after. Most of the time I go to the gym after work, but it keeps my up at night. The only reason why I don't do the gym before work, is for the simple fact that it's too far to go there and back home before work, and the showers there suck. 

I'm very much the type of person that needs to be worn out during the day, in order to get enough rest at night. If I don't, I lay awake for hours. My Tyler Durdeneque levels have peaked before, I have a bit of an insomnia problem. Either way, this will help I'm sure.

Overall, I think the first DVD is good. It pushes you to keep up, but I wouldn't exactly say it's beginners level. I don't know, maybe I'm out of it--but I don't normally do work out DVDs. I just go to the gym and follow my training program. Anyway, first work out is done! I'm feeling pretty good. I'm off to run some errands today before heading back to work. 

OH! 

So, I did my whole post thing about my food and exercise log yesterday. I'm 100% certain that it's a pain in the fucking ass. I know it helps some people, and making the "excuse" that I don't have enough time is not acceptable to some--but when you work 7 days straight, 12 hour shifts saving people's lives, you don't have fucking time to log what you ate for the day. In fact, you're lucky if you got anything to eat at all. I only work every other week, so I guess the group will just have to be cool with me posting once in a while. It's more of an exercise to keep you accountable. I'm sure it works for a lot of people, and I'm grateful for the online motivation and support. It's important to a lot out there. 

However, I'm not a social media junkie. Facebook is a pain in the ass, I really only post pictures or if I'm out of town and checking into things. I'm not one of those trolls that scrolls through my feed, stalking my friends and what they're doing. I honestly could care less. Sounds harsh, but I consume enough time during my day focusing on what the fuck I'm doing, let alone seeing what someone else is doing. Staying off Facebook keeps me out of trouble, trust me. 

I'm not totally out of the loop though lol. I Twitter and IG. Mostly because it's just fun, and I love taking pictures. I'm a total shutterbug. Oh and I totally took "before" pics today, HORRIFIC. 😳

And with that, I'm hitting the shower and going out for the day! 

Beach Body Challenge, go!

Guess what I got today...!

As promised, I'm trying out the Slim in 6 Beach Body Challenge! Super exciting! I don't go back to work until Wesnesday, so I was lucky to be home to check the mailbox! A bag of Shakeology alone would have ran me around $130, the challenge seemed to be a good idea. It came with a bag of Shakeology and the Slim in 6 DVD set. In total I paid $155. Let's open the box and see! 

The Shakeology bag lasts about a month. You can opt to get individual bags of one flavor or mix and match them. As y'all know, vanilla never works out for me and I'm sad to say strawberry doesn't really either. I'll stick to the chocolate. I'm sure I'll probably get bored with it, just like I do with every other shake I'm on. There are ways to change it up, but at least this brand doesn't have a nasty after taste.

You're supposed to use each DVD everyday for two weeks at a time; three DVDs, six weeks and you're done. It includes some start up guides, diet tips, a measuring tape and the exercise bands to go along with the workouts. 

Of course it recommends to take measurements and before photos. It's easier to see your progress in terms of photos. Your clothes getting loose is nice, but seeing is believing and photos make a huge impact. Here's a quick pic of where to take measurements on the body.

I'll be starting the Slim in 6 today, and report back on my thoughts in the next blog post. I started networking a bit with this challenge and made a new friend. Her name is Alexis, and she's been with Beach Body for a while now. She's a real person, with real success stories and experience. It's not a secret that I'm super fucking suspicious with some of these people, but she's legit. She's a young woman around my age, and I really felt like she was relateable. Either way, I'm on her facebook group for support in working out, and I have access to the beach body website too.

Honestly, it seems like tracking all this might be a pain in the ass. With two years experience of eating pretty clean and on a steady diet I'm not so much concerned with what I eat. The exercise is what I'm most interested in. I've already conditioned myself mentally and need a kick start back into fitness. I downloaded my fitness pal, to keep track of things. I'm hoping to keep on the reg with logging shit in and posting on the support group page but we'll see how that goes. 

I'm aiming to blog more, and keep you all posted on all my experiences with this. I'll post as I go, and tag my results in them. As for now, I'm off for walk it's too fucking nice out to stay in! Enjoy your day all, make the most of it! 

City of brotherly...what?

I hope that everyone had a great holiday, had time to relax and enjoy the first few weeks of Spring!

This week off, I took a quick trip to Philadelphia with my cousin Whitney. She's looking into grad schools to enter a PhD program, and considering I was off we made a trip! Our main goal was to hit up Temple, Drexel, and UPenn. Whitney has never been to Philly before, so I took this opportunity to spend some time and see some sites! 

Growing up, we toured the country pretty often. I was extremely lucky to have grandparents that loved adventure, as much as I did! Philadelphia is referred a lot of times as a "walking city". Once you figure out the demographics of the area, you'll understand why. Thank God I had a pair of sneakers in my trunk, I needed those bitches! 

I didn't really feel guilty during the trip. We hit up a few places for happy hour, but honestly I felt like we walked way more than in NYC. We definitely got our exercise in! If anyone hasn't been to visit Philly, I highly recommend getting a tour pass. It'll take you to all the sites, and you'll figure out how to navigate the city better! 

One of my favorite parts of Philly is the zoo! It's one of the best ones, and was the fest zoo established in America. It was a little bit brisk out, but that didn't keep us from hitting up ALL the sites in Philly! That me. In three days, we killed it. 

Ok so back to the title of this post...GAH. Philly is known as "the city of brotherly love" however...people in Philly can be BEARS! I mean, it's like that anywhere you go--but FUCK! Their train system is so strange; they charge your fare by what stop you're getting off at. Their subway still uses tokens, which I totally love, but is a bit confusing. I guess NYC has just spoiled me, I can get a MetroCard and swipe that shit and they don't give a shit where you go or how long you stay on the train for. 

When we got down into the subway station, we were trying to figure out what tokens to get. Lucky for us, the man in the booth was so nice to us, it was super refreshing. It totally helped that Whintey is stunningly beautiful, and we both smile a lot. Interesting enough that's how he knew we were from out of town--because we smiled so much. But I guess fucking with the token machine gave us away too? LOL. 

I really do love Philly, I always have. We made trips there a lot when I was growing up and it's really not that far from where I live. It was a good way to lay down some serious ground visiting, and experience what Philly had to offer.

And no, I didn't get a Philly cheesesteak. They've always freaked me out, and I'm just not into eating them. So for all of you who are wondering who's has the best, Pat's or Geno's, I couldn't tell ya! 

A Quest for better protein bars!

QUEST BARS.

Quite possibly the most raved about protein bar I've heard of lately. One of my girlfriends at work had gastric bypass a few years ago, and eats super healthy. She sticks to her regiment and diet very closely and one of the things she absolutely loves are Quest bars. They're supposedly one of the best protein bars you can get on the market.

Normally, the protein bars I'm used to getting have about 12-14g of protein in them, 4-6g of fiber and around 10g of sugar. I do have to admit and tell you all, that I've sort of stopped going to Tali. It's not that I don't like her, because I do. Cody my regular nurse no longer works there, and it's just not the same. I know the staples of the program, and I'd really like to try and do this on my own. It's an enormous expense, considering I have a shitty insurance program with a $500 deductible. Go figure healthcare workers get duped on their own damn insurance. Whatever. Moving on!

I went kind of nuts at GNC grabbing a variety of bars. They're expensive when you buy them by the box, so like any usual shopper do your research! I tried the cookie dough one today.

Verdict: not too bad. It's obvious that these are seriously packed with protein and are minimal on the sugar content. My only bitch about them, is that they're kind of salty. Weirdly enough! One of my friends told me broil them. Yes BROIL them, because they kind of turn into cookies. Strange. I finished the bar, and I think they're pretty okay. We'll see how the rest of them taste! 

FML

Oh hey,

I've been gone for a while, yes I know! So needless to say, the last few months have been insane for me. Between all these weddings and babies, birthdays, work and traveling I'm about ready to pass out! 

My birthday rolled around last week, and 28 feels fantastic let me tell you! I had an awesome birthday with my friends, and now I'm ready to get back in the game. I've taken off a few months, and my weight has suffered in the process. I'm not hopping on the scale until I need to, because I'm totally going to be horrified I know! Ball parking, I probably gained back about 20lbs. Everyone at work says there's no way, but I won't know until I get my ass on the scale.

I decided I needed to make a big change, so I went ahead and ordered a Beach Body Challenge pack. The price of Shakeology alone, is pretty high around $130 for a months supply. However, you can sign up for a challenge pack that includes a month supply of Shakeology and a work out program. I chose the Slim in 6, so we'll see how it goes. 

I won't weigh or measure myself until I get it in the mail, so until then I'm not going to beat myself up about it! I'll keep you all posted on it when it arrives, pics and all. I'm going to catch up on some posts I've been meaning to publish. I'll go into more detail soon!