Monday, March 21, 2011

ReVamp: Week 1

Day 1:
Woke at to a beautiful sunny day at 6:45am. Yoga helped me start off a great day! Ate healthy all day! Went food shopping and picked up food that will enhance my new way of eating. After Zumba, I had a protein drink which to my surprise was delicious! After Zumba every week I am always hungry. I eat dinner before teaching to avoid feeling faint during class. I do not like eating a full meal before I go to bed. The thought of food sitting in my stomach is not appetizing. Speaking with a few people who are work out buffs the suggestion of healthy snacks and a protein drink after Zumba came up. So that is exactly what I did! Protein drink and strawberry’s! YUM! While having my snack I decided to unwind and watch some tv. Thought this was a great opportunity to spend my 1 hour away from my phone. That was harder than I thought! Every five to ten minutes I was looking for my phone on the table and then remembering it was my one hour away from it. This is going to take some getting use to! I ended the day with some meditation. I have never felt better!

Day 2:
Could not be happier with all the healthy food I bought yesterday. Fixed myself a fruit salad big enough (or so I thought) to get me through my morning snack and my afternoon snack. Well guess what. Fruit is not filling at all! Lunch couldn’t come soon enough and when it did I was still hungry! One of the perks at my job is every so often when a meeting lets out the left over food will be brought into our kitchen. Well today was one of those days! Around 2:30pm I started to feel sluggish and needed a pick me up. I strolled on to the kitchen where I layed eyes on delicious chocolate chip cookies! As I am putting a couple on my plate I remembered! Though I am changing my eating habits this rule especially applys to when I am at work! To help me with this cleansing journey, I gave up eating junk food during the work day for Lent. (Far too often do my pink coach wallet and I take a stroll down to the vending machine for some indulgences). My wonderful and supportive co-workers told me to, “stop being a girl”, “you get a 1 hour grace period per day during lent”, and “cookies are considered lunch”. I grabbed the plate and walked back to my desk. Starring at the cookies I thought, “I can’t do this!” and so I gave the plate of cookies to my co-worker who gladly accepted and devoured the plate in front of me.  Not only did I have the strength to say ‘no’ to the cookies I also spent two hours away from my phone today! Overall today was challenging and tempting but I got through it!

Day 3:
Slept through the alarm. Ran a little late leaving for work this morning and to make matters worse there has been flooding due to all the rain we have been having. As I sat in bump to bump traffic (that’s what my great aunt calls it lol) looking at the time I started to get antsy and stress that I wasn’t going to make it to work on time. I contacted my co-worker letting her know I would be a little late, did some deep breathing and realized I have no control over the situation I am in. Stressing about it is not going to make the traffic magically disappear it is only going to put me on edge for the rest of the day. Who wants to be like that on a Friday? A Friday that is a Pay-Day no less! (Woot Woot!) I popped in some CD’s for my zumba class and was inspired to choreograph which will hopefully be this weekend.

Day 4:
Woke up and headed to a Zumba marathon! It was a lot of fun! What was not fun was getting hungry during the class when I just had breakfast! After the 75 minute cardio work out and gulping down a bottle of water went home and made myself a baby spinach omelet. I also had a granola bar and put some protein powder in my OJ. Yes, I was pretty pleased with myself. Awesome work out and healthy lunch, what could be better?  This is becoming easier than I thought.

Day 5:
Well losing the one hour of sleep definitely threw me off! Thanks Day Light Savings Time! I woke up later than I wanted to and felt overwhelmed over the time crunch I had to choreograph new routines. Well I pushed my anxiety aside, deep breath inhale positive energy, exhale stress and anxiety. Accomplished exactly what I wanted to and then ran off to the studio where the competitive dancers were putting on a showcase. The dancers were inspirational! Seeing such beauty in body expression and emotion reminded me how dance has been my outlet of expressing myself since I was a little girl. I felt so blessed and fortunate that I still have dance to lean back on when I am having a stressful day or just a bad day…Now a days I get to choreograph my own emotion and experiences and get to watch my students take on the routine as there own. It is touching when my students take on routines that I give them and interpret them as their own. This weekend I have fed my soul.

Day 6:
It is definitely easier to eat healthy when the food is right there in front of you. There are still a lot of snacks in my house that I try not to indulge in too often. Before I was inspired to ReVamp my life, if I had an apple and a donut in front of me I would not hesitate to pick up the donut and be on my way. During my 12 hour days it is so easy to go get pizza or Mc D’s because I am on the go from one job to the next or from work to school.  I guess my 12 hour days will be most challenging, to eat junk or not to eat junk.

Day 7:
Spending time away from my phone is not so bad anymore. Time passes by and I don’t even notice. Healthy food is not as easy to pack in the mornings for my day. Maybe that is why there is obesity in America. It’s easy to just throw a frozen lunch in your bag, and how easy is it to go get fast food during lunch? Buying lunch can be expensive when you add it all up week by week. Dollar menu at Mc D’s OR healthy lunch that costs $10 bucks?! That is a no brainer for the 20-something who realized she isn’t close to what she thought she would be making at this day and age.

All in all week 1 was a success! I am not feeling as stressed and overwhelmed. It’s amazing how just a few small changes in your everyday life can make an impact.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Time For Some Spring Cleaning

Spring is the time for new beginnings! And I am ready! When I was a little girl I had a plan for my life. At the age of 25 I am no where near where I thought I would be at this age! And yano what? That is fine by me! Though there are a few things I would like to ReVamp. A friend of mine is currently going through a ‘cleansing journey’ and I am starting a journey of my own as I embark on 26!

Daily Living:

For the most part I am a neat freak, and sometimes have to force myself to step back from the moment when I find myself to be a little OCD. I am very organized. There is a place for everything and everything should be in it’s place. Though some may see this as a great way to be I find myself thinking about tidying up my room or doing other chores when I am out. Why am I stressing it?!

Technology rules my life. E-mail, Internet, and Facebook are apart of my everyday life. I am either on the computer or on my phone all day checking e-mail, surfing the web, or on facebook (mostly playing the app games). My zebra cased Blackberry is attached to me AT ALL TIMES! There have been times where I cannot continue my day until my blackberry is by my side.

Stressors. We all have them! It never seems to go away. Just when I think things have settled and I can take a breath to relax, something else is dumped on my plate.  Stress gives me anxiety.  Not Healthy! Unfortunately, when I am stressed and under a lot of pressure it is hard at times to separate that problem/situation from the moment I am currently in. I have become very impatient, and at times dismissive. I don’t want to be this way! Why can’t I just relax?

Health: Always being on the go what is the easiest thing to eat? Fast food and junk snacks! I always manage to give myself the same excuse, “I am a Zumba Instructor, I can eat what I want and burn it off in class.” I will even throw in, “This is 150 calories. That’s like three Zumba songs! It’s like I never ate this!” Yes I am aware my math is a little off…

So here it goes!

Goals:
Spend at least 1 hour a day without having my phone by my side.

I will live in the moment and not let my mind drift and be clouded by stress.

When I want a snack, instead of reaching for the cookies, donuts, or brownies, I will grab something healthy: fruit, mixed nuts, yogurt, granola bar.

While I begin physically and mentally cleansing I will also start spiritually cleansing. Whether you call it prayer, meditation or you think they are one in the same, spirituality is another part of us that should be nurtured.

Goal:
Set time aside everyday to ‘recharge my battery’.

Let’s take care of ourselves!

Let the cleansing begin…

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Rise Above

This blog is from August of 2009. It relates to revamping yourself by accepting what life has given you and releasing your self of negativity.

A friend has inspired me...

The past 6 months have been unexpected. Reality has proven you never know where your life will lead you. There have been ups and downs and broken dreams have dried my tears. And after all that here I am thinking to myself, I can honestly say I am happy with my life. Lately I have been trying to do some soul searching and looking back on the obstacles that brought me here. I realized I am not the same person I was 5 years ago, 2 years ago, even 6 months ago. We all mature and become wiser. Some people grow with us, and some don't, some we have to leave behind. Did you ever look around and go, “How did I get here?” I have been really lucky and fortunate to have the support of family and a few friends. I am not the only one who has had obstacles to face these past months…It hurts me to see people I care about hurt. If I had a magic wand I would use it for your happiness!

This is how I see it: Life is a learning experience. We make mistakes, we learn, we grow, we mature, and keep moving forward. And we should soak up every happy moment and achievement! Regret is a waste of time and energy! As cliché as it may sound Living Life to the Fullest is what is important! Every bump and bruise makes us the person we are supposed to be. There was a time this year where I lost hope; everyday was harder than the day before. Then I thought to myself…

Fairy tales and dreams have been crushed by reality. I need to believe that life and fate has a way of working itself out. No matter when it comes to love, career, friendship, family; you have to fight for what you want and what you believe in and realize who is truly by your side through thick and thin. I know sometimes life and making decisions can be scary but if you don’t take the risk you will just stay in one place and wonder what-if for the rest of your life. Don’t waste it standing still and being miserable. Don’t let negativity bring you down. Rid your life of that and do whatever it takes to make yourself happy and if you can’t have what makes you happy unleash your feelings, emotions and try to have patience and hope that one day you will be happy again. Don’t walk through life waiting for things to happen. You have to do it yourself.

Let me know your thoughts…