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I don’t feel really chatty today. I think it’s because I’m tired. I walked on Monday with Mr. Man, I went to extreme boot camp class on Tuesday with my girl from work, I did my normal weekly walk with my Best Friend yesterday and Boot camp again today. It really pays to have a surplus of workout buddies. If it weren’t for my friends, I probably would have only worked out 1 or 2 of the last four days. If you ever feel like you need motivation to get in some extra activity find some fitness friends to help you stay on track. My legs are looking tight and sexy, but I think I’ll take a day or so off, I don’t want to over do it. However, I really do need to get back to running. Walking in the park and pushups are a great way to stay in shape, but there’s nothing quite like running. I want to be ready for my Sista Strut Breast Cancer 5K in October. And then take it to the next level. I get emails everyday asking about a 5K bridge to 10K podcast. Yes, it is coming. It is a long process. But the process has finally been started. I created my own plan, because I couldn’t really find one that I liked. I also have most of my weekly start up tips prepared. And, I have some great suggestions for music. I’m working hard for you guys. If you want to leave a music suggestion for the 10K podcast, just leave a comment here….Well that’s about it, short and sweet, I’m calling it a night girls and boys. Bye!
I woke up this morning and got on the scale, and I was floored, shocked, amazed and disappointed. I saw a number that I haven’t seen in a really long time. I started praying to God to help me. This weight loss thing can be so hard sometimes. I know that I have a gift of helping people with their journey, but its so frustrating that my progress made a U-turn and is running in the wrong direction. I started panicking, telling myself; I’ll never be able to make my fitness DVD, will my blog readers and runners start to think I’m a fraud? And then I had to catch myself. That downward spiral only goes down and nothing good comes from it. I prayed God just help me with today. I started remembering what my weight watcher leader and my Hollywood Aunt always say, just take it ONE DAY AT TIME. I realized, that no, Running Into Shape is not a disaster because I gained a couple pounds and yes, they will still read your blog and yes your family still loves you because you’re human, and we make mistakes. I prayed again “Okay God, I’m serious, help a sista out, I can’t do it by myself.” Instead of hitting up the deli shop at my job for a quick muffin, I took a vitamuffin top (100 cal) and a weightwatcher yogurt….(amaretto flavor, so delicious)…. Then I told my co-worker first thing, I’m eating a salad & water for lunch, nothing else, not negotiable. She’s working on her weight too, and she signed up Lyle’s Boot Camp class with me! I am so excited to have another workout buddy. You know I live for a plan, so I found my next 5K. It’s called the Sista Strut to help bring awareness to the startling number of women of color with breast cancer in my area. It’s a walk, but it’s not until October, so I hope to run the whole thing.
After work, I came home to let Nyah out and get dressed for class. I picked up my co-worker friend and we were on our way. We were just about 3 minutes late and already missed 3 exercises. Lyle is serious about his class. We joined in the jumping jacks and squat thrusts. Then, he had us lay the mats on an incline and do sit ups and pushups and repeat. That little hill made it that much harder. But thank GOD, for a cool day, it was only in the 80′s with a cool breeze. I’ll take that over ridiculously hot days we’ve been having. Class was so nice to do with a friend, and have that extra encouragement during the suicide runs and planks. I guess God was listening this morning, because I had a Gold Star day!
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B-Vita Muffin Top, WW Amaretto Yogurt (actually quite filling combo), Green Tea w/ Splenda
L- Fried Chicken Salad w/Fat Free Italian Dressing, Small breadstick & Water
D- Subway Sandwich & 13 animal crackers (I counted a serving)
This morning I woke up and saw an article about former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s bucket list. You know what a bucket list is, just like that cute little movie “The Bucket List
“ with Morgan Freeman. It’s a list of all the stuff you want to do before you die or in other words, “Kick the Bucket.” I have a list of short term goals like, make my 5K to 10K podcast, make my Fitness DVD, pay off a credit card etc, etc. But I’ve never made a list of cool stuff I want to experience. So I started one….here are a few…
Experience Zero Gravity
Run a Marathon (Hopefully sooner rather than later)
Go to Egypt and see the Pyramids and ride a camel…(any of my runners in Egypt? I’m coming to visit!)
Break a Guinness Book World Record (Doing what? Who knows?)
Write a Book
Get Married
Shake hands with President Obama
Go to culinary school (I love cooking)
Be on a National Talk Show (Not Maury LOL!)
Tons more, but too much to list here.
Anyway, writing out my bucket list gave me a whole list of reasons to keep living life to the fullest, because there’s so many things I haven’t experienced yet. Today was a good day to make my list, because in my weight watcher meeting yesterday, we talked about setting attainable goals so that you have something to look forward to. I told the leader about my recent frustrations, and she told me the simplest phrase that everyone has heard a million times. “Take it one day at a time.” I’ve always been a Big picture person (Egypt? Guinness Book?) But, with this whole weight loss thing, I can’t just say, I want to lose 100 lbs. I have to make smaller goals like, I want to track my points/calories TODAY, I want to work out TODAY. And that’s just what I did. I followed the weight watcher motto “Bite it, Write it.” I wrote down everything that went in my mouth. AND I went to boot camp class. It was so hot and humid, just being outside breathing in the thick muggy air was workout. Feeling a cool breeze was just a silly thought and far from reality. We started out the class with Lyle’s favorite, the suicide runs. Then jumping jacks, and push-ups and planks. Then he asked, “are you ready for the workout the start?” right before he told us to run a lap around the field. Let me tell y’all out of all the times I’ve worked out, I’ve never sweated this much…ever. There was literally sweat on my eyelashes, that’s how much was pouring down my face. I kept swatting at my shoulders, at what I thought was a gnat or a mosquito, but was really just sweat beads rolling down. It was so gross, I mean my hair looked like I just got out the shower…. The running lap was followed by all kinds of leg lifts and ab exercises and at least 3 more laps. I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes at him a couple times. I didn’t care if I was the last around the track today, my main goal was not to pass to out. Well, I finally finished my “victory lap” which was more like a crawl, and came home feeling like a champ!
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Oatmeal, yogurt, half of an apple
L-Turkey Sandwich and side salad
S- Weight Watcher Multi-grain Ranch Chips (delicious) & 2 twizzlers from a co-worker
D-Turkey Leg, Cream Style Corn, and Green Beans that Mama made & left over Birthday cake
Hey Everybody! I’ve been real lazy lately. Eating too much devil food, not keeping points and not working out enough. I don’t know why…it could be stress, PMS, work, blah blah, I could make up one hundred excuses, and that’s just what they would be, excuses. Today I was determined to get back in the swing of things. After work, I came home and got dressed for the gym. It was much too humid to run outside. I really didn’t feel like working out, and I’m sick of being on Week 2, but I have no one to blame but myself. I put on the Week 2 Podcast and hit the track. At the time, I was frustrated with somebody who jacked me around for some money, and I took out all of my aggression on my workout. I was like “Bring it on Carli, I’m Ready!” (I know Y’all talk back to my podcast, so I can talk back too!) I did so well, I mean I RAN during the running intervals. I surprised myself. Maybe someone should always screw me over right before a workout….well, maybe not. But anyway, I did great, no extra walking breaks; sweat pouring and legs burning, I just pushed right through it. I think I’m finally ready to move on to Week 3. So now for the juicy stuff. You know how I said I might have a date on Saturday? Well I did. And it was fantastic! He brought a dozen white roses to the Mexican restaurant on our 1st dinner date. My pastor always says “while you’re busy looking for Tall, Dark & Handsome; Mr. Right, just might be Short, Fat & Ugly. Well, He ain’t short, and he’s kinda cute. So, you figure it out…. We had such a great time and after dinner we went downtown to the John Legend
music concert and watched 4th of July, fireworks under the Arch. It was funny because my WHOLE family was there. My Mama, sisters, best friend, my shopping cousin, everybody. I warned him that they would be at the free summer concert, but he didn’t mind, because he’s real family oriented too, plus there were thousands of other people there. I kept cracking jokes like “Dang Mama, get off of my Date” Lol. My family treats everybody like family, so he told me he felt welcome and comfortable. We had such a great time; we went out again on Monday, since we were both work off for the holiday. …Well that’s the scoop. Oh yeah I signed back up for boot camp class. So hopefully with both the Couch to 5K running plan and boot camp, I can get back in the shape I want to be in.
Amber lost nearly 90 pounds with Jillian’s program!
Yesterday, I went to boot camp, but I was having such a bad day and I was in such a crabby mood, that I didn’t really want to write about it and bring everybody down to my level. I felt fat, I had cramps, I miss my cousin, work was stressing me out, and folks owed me money. It was just not a good day. But today was better, just a regular Hump-day aka Wednesday. After work my friend and I went to the park and took our weekly leisure 3 mile walk. My knee was bothering me, but I just pushed through it. Unlike last week’s power walking surprise, we took our time. After our walk I went and got Pizza Hut for dinner. I know that’s a terrible food choice, but that’s what I wanted (can we say emotional eating?) Anyway, while I was waiting on my order, I went to the Blockbuster video store next door. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m a complete movie fanatic. Like my Big Little Sister said, “Carli, all you do is work, blog, workout and watch movies.” And yep….that’s pretty much my life in a nutshell. LOL! …Anyway, when I walked in Blockbuster, it felt so archaic. I was like, you mean I’ll have to come back to this store in 5 days, and get out the car, just to return the movie? Netflix converted me about a year or two ago. There’s nothing like coming home to that fantastic little red envelope, and opening up to see what treasure lies inside. (Told you I was a fanatic, I watch at least 3 or 4 movies every week, if not more) But, I was quite shocked to find out that Blockbuster gets some of their movies 28 days before Netflix or Redbox. At first I felt robbed, but then I realized, if it wasn’t good enough to see at the theater, who cares if I have to wait another 30 days to see it. So I walked around and picked all the movies I liked, so I could come home and add them to my Netflix’s queue. Well, I’m going to eat my devil food aka pizza and open my envelope and watch The Blind Side
with Sandra Bullock. Last Night I watched “The Proposal
“ with her also. That movie was too cute! I really liked it. Well, I could babble on and on about how cool the midnight sun was when they were in Alaska and the sun was shining 24 hours a day even at night. Or how funny Ramone the overweight hairy stripper was…But, I’ll sign off. Later!
P.S. Netflix didn’t pay me to say that, but I’m trying to figure how they can! LOL!
P.P.S. Please don’t go eat pizza just because I did.
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.
I was so tired after work today, I just didn’t know if I would make it boot camp class tonight. Then, on my way home, my Shopping Cousin called me and asked if I wanted to go to the free summer concert series in the park. Tonight was all about Michael Jackson
! I wanted to go so bad! I love MJ. Y’all know I even threw a costume party to celebrate his life and career. However, I had to make a sacrifice for my blog and for my health. If I didn’t go to work out tonight, then I wouldn’t have anything to blog about besides my fabulous Mother’s Day strawberry shortcake platter.
Wasn’t it pretty?…. Anyway, I hauled my tired self to boot camp class. The theme for the night was running. We did so much running around the track. We had to run lap after lap. My legs were burning, and my calves felt like they were on fire. We spaced out the laps around the track with resistance band training and bleacher runs. I kept wondering, since when is running up and down the bleachers considered a “break”???? It’s was so funny, one the girls jokingly told Lyle, she wasn’t speaking to him anymore after what he put us through. But, of course by the end of class, we all thanked him and limped back to our cars. My t-shirt was soaked with sweat; like I’m sure I could have taken it off and ringed out the moisture. It was so gross. But it was a for sure sign that calories were burned. Which, I needed after my hefty lunch today….Before I sign off; I wanted to remind you to enter my Biggest Loser Giveaway for a chance to win a cool prize.
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Fiber One Muffin, low-fat yogurt
S- Pretzels
L- Appetizer (2 chicken party wings & a roll) Grilled Chicken Sandwich and Side Salad
D- Huge serving of delicious fresh stir-fry veggies (I had to make up for my Calorie laden Lunch)
- I only drank water all day long! Yay me.
Lately, I feel like I’ve been at war with myself. I know that probably sounds crazy but it’s the truth. I understand that it’s physically possible for me to lose weight, but I have some sort of mental block, like I don’t really believe it. Why is it that I will do so well, and then go right back into an “I don’t feel like eating healthy” mindset? I don’t know, maybe I need to do some soul searching. It’s like I’ll do just enough not to get gain all the weight back *sigh*….. Okay, enough whining… I went to boot camp tonight. I was initially dreading it, because I was so tired from work. I’ve been really busy. Today, I had a 2 hour meeting and a 1 hour training session, and still had to find time to get everything else done. But anyway, I thought it about it and figured boot camp could help relieve stress and help me unwind. The whole drive there I had this sneaky suspicion we might have to run the bleachers at track field. And guess what? I was right! We started up with a warm-up jog around the track. I was determined not to be the last one around. I might be the biggest girl in the class, but I wasn’t the slowest and I wasn’t last. After some abdominal exercises
, Lyle said, grab your resistance bands
and jog over to the bleachers. I noticed that he gave people different bands based on their ability level. He gave me the hard and the medium band. At first I was excited, like wow, he thinks I can handle the hard one? Well let me tell you…that “hard” resistance handled me during the repeated squats and bicep curls and lunges! After resistance training it was time for the bleacher run. We had to run up and down the bleachers like you see the high football players do during training. I definitely haven’t been in High School for 11 years and I certainly never played football. But that didn’t stop me from doing it; I ran up and down and back and repeated. After the bleachers, we did sit-ups and a relay race. Finally, it was time for the cool down lap. My shoe
came untied, and I was almost last, but I had to pick up the pace. I’ve been doing this for too long to be at the end of the pack with the new people. After class I felt good and oddly enough I felt rejuvenated….Well, If you’re still reading this post, it’s probably because you want to know what this Biggest Loser Give Away is all about. I’m giving away a Sculpt & Burn Kit
made by The Biggest Loser
. It has a jump rope, a weighted water ball and a tape measure to track the inches you will lose. It also comes with a poster to show you how to use everything. It can all be yours! All you have to do is leave a comment below with your favorite weight loss/exercise tip or quote that can help others on their journey to health and fitness. My favorite quote is “I only feel failure when I stop trying!” I’ll pick the winner on Thursday of next week; then I’ll send an email letting you know that you won. Good Luck!
