I had an awesome week! I’ve been going to the gym and eating healthy. (My internet has been down, sorry I haven’t gotten a chance to blog about it.) Friday, I went to lunch with my Big Little Sister at my favorite Mexican restaurant and I did not touch the fresh hot tortilla chips. I ordered a salad instead of my regular deep fried burrito… After years of my father begging me to read the The South Beach Diet Book
, I finally did. I decided to give the diet an honest try. If you want to know more about the South Beach Diet, you can check out my Video Book Review. My Dad has done a good job of maintaing his weight loss and adopting the diet as a lifestyle change. Someone asked me what’s the status with Weight Watchers? I still love Weight Watchers, but I wasn’t working the program like I should. I was simply tired of keeping points. I learned from my hypnosis CD that’s it’s okay to change diet plans every few months or so. You don’t have to stick with one plan forever. This week I’ve eaten delicious omelets, and great snacks like celery dipped in garlic-flavored hummus. Who knew I would like that?
I realized that I have 2 choices; I can track my food and eat everything in proportion, or only eat certain food (High protein, low carb, low fat) and not track. I actually just remembered that Weight Watchers has a “Core” plan that I never thought to try because I thought restricting food was too ridiculous. But, I’m giving South Beach an honest try to see which I like more. Once the carb cravings died down after a couple days, it wasn’t so bad.
I mentioned before that I’m helping my church with a walk-a-thon. Last week there were six of us at my 7 AM group training session. However, this week, most of last week’s participants were out of town or unavailable. But, I dragged myself out of bed, actually hoping it was raining, or that no one would show up. I despise mornings…I was standing there alone at 7:05, and I was ready to head back to my car, until I saw my sister’s car, speeding toward the History Museum where we planned to meet. There was no turning back now, because she hates mornings as much as I do. She said she only had a few hours of sleep, but came anyway to support me. Then I got a text from one of the girls at the church who was also on her way. Once she arrived, I told them, I would take them on a scenic walk off the regular path. Unbeknownst to me, we stumbled upon the 9/11 memorial. It was so amazing, they had flags representing those that were lost in the tragedy 10 years ago. Each flag had a brief description of a person that lost their life that day. It was quite a site to see. We took some pics and shared “Where were you when the plane hit the tower stories.”
I didn’t have my iPod tracker thingy
on, but my guess is that we walked about 2 miles. After our walk, I came home and made a broccoli cheese omelet with turkey bacon. It was yummy. I did some laundry and dozed off and I was almost late for my orientation boot camp class. I got a Groupon for 10 Classes for $30. The class started with awkward endurance/flexibility tests, which reminded me of elementary school gym class. Finally we got to work out, in a quick mini version of the class. After doing the “Spiderman” on the floor and jumping jacks for the warm up, it was hard to imagine how difficult a real class will be. Then, we did interval training as we rotated stations doing squats, planks, and pull ups with resistance bands dangling from the wall. I think it boot camp class will be a big challenge, but I’m ready! Tonight my old co-worker friend is having a Fight watch party for Mayweather v. Ortiz. Now that’s what I call a Super Saturday!
Raising Self-Esteem
High self-esteem is a critical factor that can positively affect many areas of your life. On the other hand, if you have low self-esteem, it acts like a constant challenge . . . a hurdle you have to jump over each time you want to try something new, a constant force dragging you down.
While self-esteem can be difficult to change, it’s not impossible. I’ve found a few time-tested tips for improving your self-esteem, and feeling better and more positive about yourself on a daily basis. Here are a few ideas:
- Make a list of things you like about yourself – and refer back to it often. This list should include your successes and achievements, and your positive traits and qualities. The more you practice liking and accepting yourself, the more things you’ll be able to add to the list. I like that I’m a positive person, I like that my blog inspires people to get active everyday, I like that I have 2 college degrees, I like that I finished a Half-Marathon, I like that I’m close to my family, I like my legs.
- Surround yourself with people who are loving and accepting. Don’t let yourself get dragged down by the negative attitudes of others. Your true friends will like you the way you are. My family and close friends great supporters. You all always leave positive comments that motivate me to do better.
- Take care of yourself. Give yourself the care and attention you deserve, whether that means breaking a few bad habits, paying more attention to your physical health and appearance, or taking a break with some relaxing time alone. I usually work out at least 3 times week, and I take plenty of breaks, I love to travel everytime I get the opportunity.
- Do what you love. Find a way that you can shine, using your strengths and talents to the best of your abilities. Doing activities that you’re good at is one of the best ways to build self-confidence! (That’s why I blog, it personifes everything about me!)
High self-esteem is a powerful motivator and an important predictor of future success. You can improve your self-esteem.
Core Inner Strength, a hypnosis program developed by Dr. Shirley McNeal. It’s a program by the same people that created the Weight Loss Hypnois Program. It is a fun and easy way to improve your self-esteem. There are four hypnotic sessions, to help you discover the life-changing secrets behind experiencing comfort and safety in yourself, raising your self-esteem and self-confidence, and finding your inner strength.
To learn more about Dr. McNeal’s program, click here:
http://www.hypnosisnetwork.com/hypnosis/self_esteem.php
I’m convinced that the hypnosis sessions are not making me crazy. I think after just 2 days they are actually helping. It changes your cravings if that makes sense. I now have this nagging sensation that I need to go to bed at night, when normally, I’m trying to figure out if 11pm is too late to start watching a movie. The only problem I foresee is taking the time to listen to it every day. It’s only 20 minutes, but I could see how you can think of so many other things to do other than sit in a chair with your eyes closed. It’s all natural, and it has no bad side effects. Luckily, it’s just Me and Nyah, so I don’t have too many distractions in my house. It’s almost like meditation, which is something I’ve been trying to do recently, but couldn’t focus on for more than a few minutes. After about a week or so, I’ll see how many changes I’ve actually made before I promote it. Of course you can try one that you find, but I realize that with nearly 8,000 people visiting my blog every week, I should be mindful of my platform and things I recommend. Since I went to parties all weekend and ditched my workout routine; I was determined to get back with it today. I went to the park and attempted to run with Week 3. My calves hurt so bad after the 3 minute run. My legs started screaming at me with an Old English accent “Carli, why doth ye cause us to endure such pain?!” LOL! I pushed through as much as I could. About half way through my little sister called, very upset that I didn’t invite her along. “No worries” I told her, “I’ll come get you and we can go back together.” I finished Week 3 (as best I could) and picked her up. We went back to the park, and walked to the cool tunes of Twilight Tuesday, a free outdoor summer concert series in the park. At the end of the evening, I ran/walked a total of about 4 miles.
What Did Carli Eat Today? (Nothing to Brag about, but no sweets)
B- Banana Nut Muffin and O.J.
L- Beef tacos, mexican rice and Beans and too many tortilla chips and Salsa (My sis came downtown and we went out for Mexican my fav)
S- A pack of 4 snack crackers before my run
D- KFC – Grilled Chicken, Green beans, Biscuit (too tired to cook after my workout)
Since the world didn’t end on Saturday, as predicted by “Christian” extremists, life goes on. It’s amazing to me that people think that they can calculate the end of the world. Anyway, this weekend went as planned. On Friday, I went to my cousin’s 16th Birthday backyard BBQ. I heard some great new fast paced tunes that I’ll add to my Bridge to 10K podcast. My Niecey Poo turned 3 on Saturday. She had a fabulous Luau themed party at the mall with 2 birthday cakes and 3 bounce houses. Of course I “had” to try both cakes which were equally delicious. After her party I went to my best friend’s co-worker’s birthday party at a sports bar. My friend tried to get me to try the cupcakes but I passed. I had eaten enough of everything else. The fourth party girl turned 21 and had so much fun that she slept through the scheduled buffet dinner celebration on Sunday. But, unfortunately that didn’t stop me and my Big Little Sister from going to the buffet. During dinner, we had a heart to heart about me and my food addiction, and she actually cried! She almost made me cry, and y’all know I am not a crier. She thought I just “liked food” and didn’t realize how much a daily struggle it is for me. She was astonished at the fact that I routinely eat when I’m not physically hungry and don’t always stop when I full. It saddened her because she didn’t know just how serious of a problem it really is for me. I talk about my love/hate relationship with food on my blog, but rarely discuss it face to face in the real world. She was even further upset by the fact that there was no cure or a pill to fix the problem. Welcome to my world…. She suggested counseling and even hypnosis. I’ve never done one on one counseling, but it could be beneficial. I’m sure insurance won’t cover it though. But, since one of my commenters mentioned hypnosis, and my sister did too, I decided to try it. I’ll tell you guys which program I purchased once I really get to see what it’s about. Please don’t think I’ve completely lost my mind, it works in conjunction with a healthy eating plan like Weight Watchers. As, a nerd I did through research before I bought it, as I was extremely skeptical. However, if these people brainwash me and I become a crazed lunatic, please explain to my family what happened to me. I downloaded the sessions and burned them to CD. I listened to the assigned audio tracks today. Today she focused on eating veggies, drinking only water (Score!) and getting more sleep. Agh, sleep…I routinely go to sleep most nights after midnight. I’ve always been a night owl. I stay up blogging and watching movies, just like I am doing right now. Anyway, for a while I’ve been telling myself that I want to set aside time each day to dedicate to positive reinforcement of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, so this might just be the 20 minute break from the real world to focus that I need.
