A couple weeks ago, I decided I was going to move myself into even higher maintenance mode, and began preparations for a full-leg, armpit and "European" bikini wax for an upcoming trip to the tropics.... I have "dabbled in wax" for several years now, having become a veteran of the lip and eyebrow variety waxes, and I did "treat myself" (!?!?!) to a European this past fall when we had a romantic weekend getaway.... I just thought, "How lovely to be able to leave my razor at home, and be silky smooth during my whole vacation...." How wrong I was!!
The first issue was, I kept FORGETTING that I was no longer supposed to shave, and before I knew it I would have one leg done and the other one lathered up! I am a creature of habit, and I have NEVER been one of those females that could just go all "natural" even in the depths of the coldest winter, for a couple reasons... A. As a fitness teacher for many years, the sight of hairy legs and pits is just too gruesome to subject ANY class to and B. I simply can't TOLERATE the feel of anything more than about a 48 hour growth of hair on my legs or pits!!! My solution to the short memory problem was to simply remove the razor from the tub area, and suddenly I was on my way to that "required minimum 1/4" long outgrowth"..... Then I started getting conflicting reports on how long this "outgrowth" would take -- opinions ranged from minimum of 2-3 weeks, to an outrageous suggestion that it could take 5 weeks to get "optimum outgrowth for a really effective wax job". Helloooooo!?!??!?!??! WTF do models, actresses, and "active" girls like the Sex and the City gang do between waxes!?!??!? I find it very hard to believe that ANY of those women have been spotted ANYWHERE with a several week outgrowth....
By Day Five, just when I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it to 1/4" anyway, my decision was made for me, and my waxing appt. was immediately canceled -- I was putting my February days in my planner, looking ahead to the WICKED Gala that we will be attending on Friday, February 6th, and realizing that my perfectly WICKED dress would NOT be a fit with hairy pits and legs.... Yes I could wear pantyhose I suppose, BUT the length that my leg hairs achieved in just five days made me realize that I would end up looking like a gorilla in nylons, and there is just NO WAY I am going to try and rely on a "shrug" or "wrap" to cover up hairy armpits at a Gala Event... So I guess my razor will be traveling with me in February, and I will regroup and start the growing out process again in March for my April anniversary trip to Curacao.... Ladies, (or guys!??!!) any suggestions on how to more easily and painlessly prepare for a wax!?!?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
(Almost) Everything I Need to Know About Weight Management I (Could) Learn from my Dogs (PART 2)
In my last post we learned that Bella could teach me about the importance (and utter JOY) of breakfast. In this post we will examine what Rocky could teach me about exercise....
WHAT I SHOULD LEARN FROM ROCKY - The Joy of Physical Activity in the Morning
Dogs are creatures of habit and routine and that in and of itself --I suspect-- would solve half my weight management issues if I could just embrace even the idea of a routine.... I hate mornings (unless I am on my way to the airport for the start of travel somewhere, but that is the subject of a future blog), and I have decided I really don't like structure or routine much either --my status of working from home for the past 18 months has certainly helped nourish that view and lifestyle! Rocky's daily routine, like Bella's, starts with breakfast, but then he takes it a step further and begins his "exercise plan" for the day almost immediately.... He searches out his "Sweet Tart ball" -- a hard rubber ball in pastel colors with an annoying jingle bell at its core. As soon as he finds it, he jumps up onto the bed -- yes, I am still usually in bed --and shoves the ball against my hand enthusiastically...
If you don't know my dogs personally, I need to tell you that Rocky loves the game of fetch, BUT he also wants every round to include a game of tug o'war at the start. So he jams the ball against my hand, then pulls away, I ignore him, he does it again, I ignore him, and finally after several rounds of this, he drops the jingling ball next to me and waits for me to throw it out the bedroom door. He bounds off the bed, grabs the ball --often in mid-bounce-- and bounds back to me, jumping over the 3'+ plus footboard of the bed with ease, and starts the whole process all over again...
He will repeat this seemingly endlessly if I stay awake and in bed and keep doing my part. If I do get out of bed before he has deemed the exercise session over, he follows me --into the bathroom, the kitchen, the laundry room, with the darn Sweet Tart ball jingling away, just to prove we aren't done yet. I suspect that by the time we finish the morning fetch routine, he has already burned off his breakfast calories and then some, and completely revved up his metabolism for the whole day ahead.
I, on the other hand, haven't managed to sustain a regular morning exercise routine since I was in college -- before I had kids, dogs, and a full-time job. If I had a dollar for every time I have written out a plan that INCLUDES morning exercise, well then I could probably afford a personal trainer that would come drag my lazy ass out of bed and MAKE me exercise in the morning. But since I don't have that luxury, I suspect that consistent morning exercise will elude me, at least until this stupid long cold snowy winter ends, and then I can go back to walking the dogs on a regular basis, which sometimes does manage to occur in the morning! Stay tuned for any progress in this area, and comments/suggestions are certainly welcome.
WHAT I SHOULD LEARN FROM ROCKY - The Joy of Physical Activity in the Morning
Dogs are creatures of habit and routine and that in and of itself --I suspect-- would solve half my weight management issues if I could just embrace even the idea of a routine.... I hate mornings (unless I am on my way to the airport for the start of travel somewhere, but that is the subject of a future blog), and I have decided I really don't like structure or routine much either --my status of working from home for the past 18 months has certainly helped nourish that view and lifestyle! Rocky's daily routine, like Bella's, starts with breakfast, but then he takes it a step further and begins his "exercise plan" for the day almost immediately.... He searches out his "Sweet Tart ball" -- a hard rubber ball in pastel colors with an annoying jingle bell at its core. As soon as he finds it, he jumps up onto the bed -- yes, I am still usually in bed --and shoves the ball against my hand enthusiastically...
If you don't know my dogs personally, I need to tell you that Rocky loves the game of fetch, BUT he also wants every round to include a game of tug o'war at the start. So he jams the ball against my hand, then pulls away, I ignore him, he does it again, I ignore him, and finally after several rounds of this, he drops the jingling ball next to me and waits for me to throw it out the bedroom door. He bounds off the bed, grabs the ball --often in mid-bounce-- and bounds back to me, jumping over the 3'+ plus footboard of the bed with ease, and starts the whole process all over again...
He will repeat this seemingly endlessly if I stay awake and in bed and keep doing my part. If I do get out of bed before he has deemed the exercise session over, he follows me --into the bathroom, the kitchen, the laundry room, with the darn Sweet Tart ball jingling away, just to prove we aren't done yet. I suspect that by the time we finish the morning fetch routine, he has already burned off his breakfast calories and then some, and completely revved up his metabolism for the whole day ahead.
I, on the other hand, haven't managed to sustain a regular morning exercise routine since I was in college -- before I had kids, dogs, and a full-time job. If I had a dollar for every time I have written out a plan that INCLUDES morning exercise, well then I could probably afford a personal trainer that would come drag my lazy ass out of bed and MAKE me exercise in the morning. But since I don't have that luxury, I suspect that consistent morning exercise will elude me, at least until this stupid long cold snowy winter ends, and then I can go back to walking the dogs on a regular basis, which sometimes does manage to occur in the morning! Stay tuned for any progress in this area, and comments/suggestions are certainly welcome.
(Almost) Everything I Need to Know About Weight Management I (could) Learn From My Dogs!!
First of all, let me preface this story by saying that I already "know" more about weight management, physical fitness, and nutrition than many people with advanced degrees in these subjects.... What escapes me in real life is putting knowledge into (consistent) action. I realized this morning that if I took just one lesson from each of my lovable Boston Terriers, and actually put it into consistent action, I would have this whole thing whipped!!!
WHAT I SHOULD LEARN FROM BELLA - The Joy of BREAKFAST!!
We all "know" that breakfast is the most important meal, right??? But how many of us actually eat a good, healthy breakfast on a consistent basis? I just read a study where a group of over 1,000 obese women were studied for 36 weeks. The first group ate ONE HALF of their allotted 1,208 calories a day at breakfast, with half of their protein, half of their carbohydrates, half of their fat eaten in one sitting by 9 am. (WHAT TRAVESTY I thought to myself.... On Weight Watchers, I always saved at least half of MY points for after 9 PM!! On LA Weight Loss, I would save most of my fruit portions to be used for wine in the evening, and struggled just to get one protein, one fat and one carb into my food diary by mid morning.... On Jenny Craig.... Alright, you get the idea -- we could go on and one here with my various failures at various diets, but suffice it to say that I haven't managed to lose "that last stubborn 25 pounds" on any of them....)
Back to the research results -- the second study group ate a low-carb breakfast and only 1,064 calories daily for 36 weeks. At the end, the big breakfast eaters had lost almost 23% of their body weight, and the low-carb, low-calorie eaters has lost less than 6%. And how does this have ANYTHING to do with Bella??? Well this morning I observed her daily routine, where she bounds out of bed at the first sound of someone in the kitchen (let the record state that that "someone" is almost always my husband, NOT me), runs to her food dish, bounds back into bed (that would be me still in bed!!), licks my face enthusiastically and bounces around as if to say: "Breakfast, Yummmm, Breakfast, WOO HOO, Breakfast!!!"
The moment that she hears her first kibble hit the dish, she is back out there, doing her sit on command before she gobbles up her 1/2 cup with great enthusiasm... This is exactly half of the food she will get today, and it is gone in 30 seconds or less.... And she is happy, energized and her weight doesn't fluctuate more than half a pound one way or the other, unless Dad has given her too many table scraps!! At least in the dog world, eating half your daily calories for breakfast works, and studies show it works in humans, too.... Hmmmm can I manage to make myself at least eat SOMETHING HEALTHY for breakfast every morning instead of living on coffee with sugar-free creamer until noon while "stockpiling" my calorie allowance for late-night snacks?? Stay tuned!!
WHAT I SHOULD LEARN FROM BELLA - The Joy of BREAKFAST!!
We all "know" that breakfast is the most important meal, right??? But how many of us actually eat a good, healthy breakfast on a consistent basis? I just read a study where a group of over 1,000 obese women were studied for 36 weeks. The first group ate ONE HALF of their allotted 1,208 calories a day at breakfast, with half of their protein, half of their carbohydrates, half of their fat eaten in one sitting by 9 am. (WHAT TRAVESTY I thought to myself.... On Weight Watchers, I always saved at least half of MY points for after 9 PM!! On LA Weight Loss, I would save most of my fruit portions to be used for wine in the evening, and struggled just to get one protein, one fat and one carb into my food diary by mid morning.... On Jenny Craig.... Alright, you get the idea -- we could go on and one here with my various failures at various diets, but suffice it to say that I haven't managed to lose "that last stubborn 25 pounds" on any of them....)
Back to the research results -- the second study group ate a low-carb breakfast and only 1,064 calories daily for 36 weeks. At the end, the big breakfast eaters had lost almost 23% of their body weight, and the low-carb, low-calorie eaters has lost less than 6%. And how does this have ANYTHING to do with Bella??? Well this morning I observed her daily routine, where she bounds out of bed at the first sound of someone in the kitchen (let the record state that that "someone" is almost always my husband, NOT me), runs to her food dish, bounds back into bed (that would be me still in bed!!), licks my face enthusiastically and bounces around as if to say: "Breakfast, Yummmm, Breakfast, WOO HOO, Breakfast!!!"
The moment that she hears her first kibble hit the dish, she is back out there, doing her sit on command before she gobbles up her 1/2 cup with great enthusiasm... This is exactly half of the food she will get today, and it is gone in 30 seconds or less.... And she is happy, energized and her weight doesn't fluctuate more than half a pound one way or the other, unless Dad has given her too many table scraps!! At least in the dog world, eating half your daily calories for breakfast works, and studies show it works in humans, too.... Hmmmm can I manage to make myself at least eat SOMETHING HEALTHY for breakfast every morning instead of living on coffee with sugar-free creamer until noon while "stockpiling" my calorie allowance for late-night snacks?? Stay tuned!!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
New Year's Resolutions...
Happy 2009!!
Soooo - I set my first ATTAINABLE and hopefully SUSTAINABLE New Year's Resolution EVER!! To start this blog and see if people think I have anything interesting to say!! So now that I have achieved this resolution (the proof is in the fact you are reading my first blog post ever!!), I have decided to set a few more resolutions for 2009:
1. Eat chocolate every day 2. Take my daughter to school in my PJ's and robe no fewer than twice a week. 3. Weigh myself obsessively at least a couple times daily (with clothes, without clothes, on an empty stomach, on one foot, etc... You get the idea!!) 4. Play no less than one hour a day of Internet Scrabble. 5. Get in as much snuggle time with my two Boston Terriers, Rocky and Bella (who will figure prominently in my Blog, I have no doubt!!) as is possible.... WHO KNEW that I could find not one, but TWO dogs that love to be lazy and warm as much as I do!?!?
Right now, I am feeling super-confident that I am going to be able to, in 2009, keep ALL my resolutions, ALL year long. What a confidence builder that is (heavy sarcasm) :-)
Soooo - I set my first ATTAINABLE and hopefully SUSTAINABLE New Year's Resolution EVER!! To start this blog and see if people think I have anything interesting to say!! So now that I have achieved this resolution (the proof is in the fact you are reading my first blog post ever!!), I have decided to set a few more resolutions for 2009:
1. Eat chocolate every day 2. Take my daughter to school in my PJ's and robe no fewer than twice a week. 3. Weigh myself obsessively at least a couple times daily (with clothes, without clothes, on an empty stomach, on one foot, etc... You get the idea!!) 4. Play no less than one hour a day of Internet Scrabble. 5. Get in as much snuggle time with my two Boston Terriers, Rocky and Bella (who will figure prominently in my Blog, I have no doubt!!) as is possible.... WHO KNEW that I could find not one, but TWO dogs that love to be lazy and warm as much as I do!?!?
Right now, I am feeling super-confident that I am going to be able to, in 2009, keep ALL my resolutions, ALL year long. What a confidence builder that is (heavy sarcasm) :-)
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