Super Sweet 16

Today is my little sister’s Super Sweet 16th birthday.   I got up this morning with a to-do list much longer than I would have preferred for it to be.  But I guess I’ll back track, for the last week I felt kind of frustrated.  That’s why my blog was pretty quite, I guess I just felt stuck.  I almost canceled my Weight Watchers membership. I felt like the plan just wasn’t working for me.  But the truth of the matter is that I wasn’t working the plan….  My Little Sister asked me to go to vacation bible school and I’m glad I did, because I got a good word that I needed.  We talked about the Spiritual Armor of God.  Specifically, that day we discussed the Sword of the Spirit.  We talked about using God’s word as our offensive weapon (the sword).  God gave us all of the tools that we need to fight back.  Everyone has their own issue; my issue of course is struggling with the idea that I have to battle weight for the rest of my life.  I still haven’t fully accepted that I have to deal with this forever.  But, I left church feeling refreshed and renewed that God will help me fight my battle.   So, this morning I got up and went to the gym, I hadn’t been to the gym since last week when I went with my Shopping Cousin.   As I walked up the stairs to the indoor track, I got winded and out of breath.  Oh crap, I thought to myself, that can’t be a good sign.  I did some light stretches and turned on my Week 3 podcast.  Even though I didn’t exercise for more than a week, I refuse to go backwards.  If Week 3 killed me today, it was just going to kill me.  The first 90 second run was easy.  After the 3 minute run, it started to get a little tough, but I didn’t care, I kept pushing, as I thought back to the days where, I would look down and couldn’t see my lap over my stomach, or got out of breath bending over putting on my shoes.  I can’t go back there, it was just too miserable.  I also thought about Roni’s post called “Why I Keep Trying.” I pushed all the way through the whole running routine with no extra walks.  Every time I heard “Carli” say “ready for your next run?” I would say out loud, “Bring it on Baby, I got you, I’m ready!”  When I finished, I felt so proud, it was like I never missed a day.  Then it was time to get ready for the rest of the day.  I invited my new guy friend to the party, you know the guy that I mentioned before, let’s call him Mr. Man.  So, Mr. Man rode with me over my parent’s house while I helped my little sister get ready.  My Dad opened the door.  Oh boy, I thought to myself, this will be interesting.  Unfortunately, I had the leave Mr. Man downstairs by himself with Dad while I went up to help my little sister get dressed.  I said “Daddy be nice.”  To which my Father sternly replied “What does that mean?”   I tapped Mr. Man on the shoulder and said “Good Luck!”   He survived, even though I fed him to the wolves, LOL.  I later found out they talked about football and Lebron and other boy stuff.  …Anyway,  My little sister did it so big y’all.  She showed up fashionably late to her glow in the dark party. She had a grand entrance with an escort and even a balloon drop.  Can you believe it?!  She looked so fabulous!  That girl was rocking some HOT stilettos high heels, but you know they came off before the end of the night after all the dancing she did.  My Mama was so awesome to pull off the party of my sister’s dreams.  There were tons of overly-energetic teens dancing all night. Even us “old people” had such a great time!  After the party, we went to Uncle Bill’s pancake house, a local 24 restaurant, perfect for a late night meal.  Me and my Big Little Sister, and  Mr. Man chaperoned my little sister and the 16 friends and who joined her after party.  I told the hostess table for 20 people at 1 o’clock in the morning, she replied “are you serious?”  Yep, I told her we were there for the post-party meal.  Everyone had a ton of fun cracking jokes and hanging out, and I didn’t make it to bed until 4 A.M.!  My little sister said it was the best birthday ever!

And the Winner is….

And the Winner is….drum roll please……….Clara!  She won my Biggest Loser Give away.   I loved loved loved all of your quotes and tips.  I hadn’t heard most of them before.  I’m going to make a list of my favorite ones and post them on my wall.  Clara’s quote was from the Bible, how can you beat that?  “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  Philippians 4:13.  Sometimes we feel like we are on the journey to fitness all by ourselves.  But it’s important to always remember that we are not.  There is something bigger than all of us, which can carry through all the good and the bad times.  Here are some of my top favorite runner up quotes from other contestants. 

• “Well done is better than well said.”
• “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.”
•  “Finish what you started.”
• “Fall down 7 times, get up 8″

Thanks to everyone who entered! 

P.S. For the first time ever, I hoped and wished for rain.  When I woke up this morning my “everything” hurt.  That 3 mile walk (more like a jog) yesterday took a toll on me.  My friend’s co-worker couldn’t even wear her sassy high heels today! …My wish came true, it rained and boot camp class was canceled.  I’m sure that will make Tuesday’s class that much harder, but for now, I’m loving my day off to rest and recuperate.

Cupcakes & Twinkies & Cookies Oh My!

I went to the studio today, and my friend had cookies with icing, hostess cupcakes, Twinkies and Chinese Fried Rice.   I think he was testing me, But I passed!  I did not eat not one bite of that “Devil Food.”  I stayed focused and we finished weeks 5 and 7 of my Couch to the 5K podcasts.  Then I went to Bread Co grabbed some lunch and caught up on my bible reading assignments for the Get Fit 4 Christ Program.  After lunch and a very long reading session, I met with Lyle the personal trainer.  He had me start by warming up on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes.  Then we did circuit training with dumbbells.  He gave me 8 pound dumbbells in each hand!  I’ve never worked out with 8 pound weights.  It went really fast and reminded me of boot camp class, but at a faster pace.  He also threw some Sit ups, push ups and jumping jacks in the routine.  When it was time to do planks  (holding up your body with your upper body muscles) I said the very bad “C” word…(I Can’t).  He quickly corrected me, and said “you can” … And, I did.  After a good sweaty workout, I came home and touched up my resume and cover letter.  I have an interview tomorrow, so say a prayer, cross your fingers, or just run an extra lap for me!  LOL. 

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Minute Maid Pomegrante Lemonade

L- Chicken Salad Sandwich

French Onion Soup w/ a Sourdough Roll 

An  Apple

S- Peanut Butter Crackers

D- Leftover Chili

S- Teddy Grahams

Get Fit 4 Christ.com

Lyle, the personal trainer/author, is Serious.  We’ve already had 2 assignments, and the program doesn’t officially start until Sunday!  Our 1^st homework assignment was to study 1^st Samuel 17: 1-51, the story of David & Goliath and create a blog.  I have to keep it real with y’all.  I not only had to Find my bible in my trunk, but I also had to really flip through to find the chapter.  Of course the blog part was easy.  The 2^nd Assignment was writing out our goals.  We have due dates and everything, I feel like I’m back in school…Me and the other winning contestants will be taking “Before Pictures” tomorrow at the fitness studio.  I want to be cute, but maybe I’ll just put on a little lip gloss and save the real fierceness for the “After” Photo Shoot.

This Morning I had a meeting because I’m on the Career Fair committee with the Black MBA Association…I know thats irony at it’s best…  Later this afternoon, my body felt so blah after not working out for 2 days, so I went to the gym and jogged to my week 6 podcast.  Notice I didn’t say “power-walked,” I actually did Day 1 of Week 6.  Whew!  When you don’t run, you loose it quick. The whole time I was saying “Carli, talk to me now…tell me my 8 minute run is over.”… I had 2 sucky songs that just didn’t flow and have to be changed, but Week 5 is in the final editing stages. Thanks for being patient.