by Tish MacWebber | Apr 3, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
I survived another Monday and made it to another Zumba Class! I really enjoyed the music and the workout today. I am tired, but I earned it. We made it to 5,000 steps today!
I knew I was feeling like I needed a good workout. I felt a little lethargic, but I knew I needed to go. I got ready and found my place in the Zumba Crew.
I went for it! Since I have this new smartband, I have been keeping an eye on my steps and my heart rate. My resting heart rate is around 65. Well, at one point it was really pumping, I felt like it was working hard. I checked, and it was at 146. Exercise success! I increased my heart rate! I paced myself for a bit with the music and brought it down to 85.
Then the music sped up again. I was feeling it, but not like earlier. It was back up to 101. I worked out hard tonight. It was a good class. I managed to calm down without panicking about my heart rate when it was pumping really fast.
We were near the end, and I heard a song I knew the moves for. So I got into a groove and was told I had some sass in the class tonight. I was just getting my Zumba on, and I guess others noticed. It is good to be in the Zumba Zone. It was a great finish to another Monday. My heart rate is closer to normal now, back at 75 beats. So I have recovered from my workout, and now I can relax.
A quick google search gave me the answer to what a good heart rate during exercise is. 220 – your age= the maximum heart rate you should have to still be within a healthy range. I still have wiggle room with that calculation, and with my weight being quite high, I do not want to max that out. Yet.
A target resting heart rate is 60-100 for the average person, and 40-60 for an athlete. I guess I have some work to do on that also, but generally, my resting heart rate is near 60, so I am going to keep on believing that I have a strong, healthy heart, and keep on going to Zumba. I like it, and it is good for me! I got my heart rate up, and I had fun! Those are 2 key points to remember when I am dragging my feet and don’t want to make the effort. I AM WORTH THE EFFORT! It certainly makes me feel better, and helps move the stress of the day job out of my system!
It’s all good, and when I pace myself, it is OK. I am comfortable in my Zumba Crew and sometimes I dance to a different beat, but I am still there, and I am still dancing my way to being healthier. Although I am tired after a really good class like this, I never want to stop! It is a good tired, the best kind, and I had fun getting there. It is good for my heart and soul. So I intend to keep going for as long as I can!
.
by Tish MacWebber | Apr 1, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Well, I decided it was time to give a progress report. The tunes are cranked. I am motivated. So what did I get done?
I have decided to publish this first thing Saturday morning so I can keep the momentum going that I found last weekend. I worked on my kitchen DURING THE WEEK! I am really happy with my progress.
I moved the dish drainer out of the way to create a new Coffee Station. I blogged about that on Monday, because I was so excited that I had to share what I did. For a recap of that short story, here is a link: Coffee Station Complete!
I washed the curtains, and they are all hung back up. I also had to flip the windowsill decorations to match the flip of the coffee station. The curtain has to be at the opposite side of the window, which caused the rearrangement of the items. I have put the dish drainer on the other side of the sink. It is a better place because the dishes are on that side of the kitchen. Most of them. Then I continued to the last section of the countertop. Breadbox, toaster and blender are shuffled. The electric stand mixer is by the dish drainer now. It meant I could tuck the toaster beside the breadbox, instead of it being in front of the breadbox like it was before.
Then I ran out of steam. My husband helped during the week, which can help me to get going. I have plans to start my day with paying it forward. I am off to help another friend in the land of blogging and website design. I will do what I can to help, and we will see how far we get. The last friend I helped has 2 blog posts published and is still figuring it all out. I plan to help her again when our schedules align, and also to share her blog in the future when it is developed further. I am also planning to share blogs from others that I help, even if they do all the work and I just gave them ideas to run with. There is at least one person I know that is doing this, and it is nice to see them happy about their progress.
After I finish helping my friend today, I am going to go back into my kitchen, and get the house bouncing again! I need to keep the momentum going so that I CAN finish, otherwise I will NEVER finish, and that is just not acceptable to me. I need to do this cleaning challenge, more than ever! I need to prepare my home for neglect while I am writing. I know, it will still need maintenance cleaning, and I shall be looking into that when I am at that stage. For now, I will leave you knowing I am fighting through the procrastination and laziness, doing good in the world by helping friends, and getting my kitchen ready for spring, with a promise of more pictures as I complete different areas.
I am rethinking storage in my kitchen. I sense more reorganization in my future of 4 areas. I have very little room for storage, so I have to plan any changes in detail before tacki\ling them because any changes are critical, and need to improve on how things are now, rather than just add more confusion and not maximize the storage space that I have available. I am preparing to take this project on this weekend.
Have a productive Saturday! Who knows, maybe that next Weekend Warrior will be tomorrow’s story, with those pics I am preparing to share.
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 25, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Well, look at that. I made it to another weekend. It is unplanned, as of yet, and that could be dangerous. In terms of making the most of my weekend off, that is.
Looking around, I can get overwhelmed at the amount of work I still need to do. But just looking at it won’t fix that.
So I have to make a list. It will be for both days, as I never seem to finish the list I make in one day, so I’ll be realistic. Then I will pick some small things to get me going. It is motivating to cross things off of the list.
Eggs and Avs (THM) A nice filling breakfast. I love poached eggs, but you can fry them if you prefer. I love this quick, healthy breakfast on weekends.
We do have to run errands today. So I’ve filled the Overthinkin and Coffee Drinkin mug to sip my coffee while I Brunch and write. Tomorrow I’ll need to prep cook, and my husband doesn’t know it yet, but there is a package of bacon for tomorrow’s breakfast. He wouldn’t eat this with me, but he loves bacon and eggs.
I am still struggling with the cleaning challenge. I feel like this weekend might be when I get back on track. I set the goals at the start of the year, and I intend to keep them. But where to begin? I am overwhelmed by a number of things to do on an exponentially growing to do list and underwhelmed with the energy to attack it. How do I fight my way to doing instead of dreading?
The lists and music are the answer. Even if I take an hour to make the list, it is a start. Do I write down everything, share it with my husband, and tackle it with him? Will we bicker if we tackle the same thing together? Sometimes that happens. If we are both working in the kitchen, there is not a lot of space when we are doing the dishes. My kitchen is deceptive. It looks spacious but has very little cupboard space. I have had to be creative in what I have and where I store things. I have a bookcase, an open pantry, and a large standing shelf with a door on it.
This is the final result of the only thing I really accomplished in the first year I joined the Cleaning Challenge. I need to tidy it up this year, but for the most part, it is still in good shape, and just needs a good dusting job. It is my Open Shelf Pantry.
We have often talked about how to get more efficient storage in the kitchen. We are planning to get some furniture “someday” at Ikea. It will be mostly to set up the living room, but the kitchen will get a boost too. It will happen, it is hard sometimes to make do and stay motivated, but it is what it is.
This afternoon we went to get our taxes finished up. Done for another year. We then made an afternoon trip of going to two local SPCA animal shelters. We are starting to think about getting our first dog, and saw a lot of cats too. We will get another cat too, someday, but we needed a break, after having been a cat only home for so long.
This evening we went to visit some friends. It was nice to get out and socialize as a couple with another couple that we are friends with, but haven’t been to visit in quite some time.
Another productive day outside of the house. I will have to work really hard tomorrow to catch up. It can be done. It will be done. It has to. I hope the energy is still with me tomorrow. The house needs a bouncing!
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 23, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share the story of another friend. It is written in her own words, and she submitted it earlier this week with her permission to share it as a part of the series.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Bonnie’s Story
My story begins all the way back to when I was five years old. I was always small for my age until then, when my parents got divorced. All of the changes and upheaval that happens with that sort of thing, is what seems to have contributed to me eating more and gaining weight. Still, I was only chubby as a child. I wasn’t truly overweight until my preteens. I believe I was about ten years old when I realized that I was bigger than most of the kids my age but other than some minor teasing from other kids that usually went over my head anyway, I did not feel bad about it. At age twelve, I weighed 180 pounds and that’s the age that I really started noticing how heavy I was and feeling body conscious.
I never did anything about it at that age though, except maybe some walking for exercise. Other than that, I did a lot of wishing and dreaming that I would just wake up skinny one day and everyone would like me because I wasn’t a big girl anymore. I remember feeling bad about being overweight, not being able to wear the types of clothes my friends were wearing, and receiving some teasing or comments here and there.
When I was sixteen, my mom and I joined a women’s gym together. There I learned about exercise and how beneficial, as well as fun, it could be. The first workout left me so sore I could barely move and I didn’t want to go back, it hurt so much. However, I did go back a few days later and started to realize a love for exercise I never knew I could have! The trainers there, one I’m still in touch with to this day, were so kind and really involved. They provided me with so much quality guidance that I really needed. Due to a move across town, making the trip to the gym too far for me to go, I stopped going once our one year was up there and turned to walking more for exercise. Slowly the weight I had lost from exercising at that gym for a year crept back on.
Another few years went by where I tried various things but never stuck with anything consistently, until 2009, when I was twenty. I started a weight loss journey by cutting back my calories significantly, exercising five or six days a week, and drinking Slim-Fast and changing my eating habits to include more vegetables and fruits. Soon I joined the SparkPeople website where I received support, information, and resources I needed to keep losing weight. I lost over 75 pounds during the seven months I was on there and actively working to lose weight. Right around my twenty-first birthday though, I ended up suffering from gallstones and pancreatitis, spending a whole week in the hospital and having my gallbladder removed. After that and some dramatic changes in my life that happened directly afterwards, I pretty much gave up on losing weight. I mean I tried, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore and I wasn’t consistently working on it any longer.
The next few years after that I continued to try to lose weight at different points, but it never lasted and I never stuck with it long enough to make a significant difference. Finally in May 2014, I started my final and last weight loss journey. This was it! I was going to lose the weight and keep it off! I had gained all of the weight I had lost in 2009 and then some, as it often goes. I was a whopping 309 pounds at this point, when I had sworn I would never get over three hundred pounds! I was shocked and appalled, and I knew I had no choice but to make changes so I could lose that weight. By August of 2015, I was in what is often referred to as “onederland,” finally breaking into the 190’s. It took quite a while after that to get into the 180’s, but my lowest weight was 181 in April 2016.
Enter this past summer that brought issues with my grandparents and their health, a big cross country move, having to leave behind my siblings and their kids when my parents and I moved, and so much more, I just let things go. I had just completed my first ever half marathon in May of last year, which was one of the most rewarding and invigorating experiences of my life. It was so much fun that I’m doing the same half marathon again this May. After the half marathon, the summer was full of all of these huge, and very stressful, events that kept the next few months super stressful and overwhelming. I started gaining weight back because I just felt too overwhelmed to devote the attention and dedication to my nutrition that I had before.
Even with the weight gain, I am still 60+ pounds down from my highest weight, but it has been a huge struggle to get back on track and the weight has kept creeping on due to my struggles. I know I can do it, as I proved it to be the case before, but it seems harder. I lost that momentum, I stopped being consistent, and I guess I gave up. However, I still had a huge passion to help others, and had restarted a blog for the purpose of helping other women find a way to not only lose weight, but believe in themselves, find their inner strength, and practice self-love. Still, at some points in the past few months, I have felt like a fraud because I had been struggling so much. It is all a part of my journey, so even though it felt horrible and disappointing all the same, it has been a learning experience and has made me stronger!
A positive thing that has come out of my struggles is that a little over a month ago, I made the decision to join Beachbody as a coach. Using the container system, Shakeology, and workouts they have in their programs is truly making a huge difference for me both physically and mentally. That doesn’t mean that it is easy or that the changes are instantaneous, and I am still slowly getting my nutrition back in check in addition to working out more consistently again. I am also drinking Shakeology everyday and noticing how much it makes a difference in my energy levels. I never realized how beneficial it could be! Besides that, I also have a huge support system with the coaches that are part of the team of the coach I signed up with. As a friend, she is someone I trust, feel comfortable talking to, and know she will help me the best way she can which is a huge deal to me and made the decision that much easier!
I have complete faith that I will lose the weight I’ve regained. I felt so skinny at 180-190 pounds, even though I still wanted to lose 30 more pounds. Now I glance at pictures from that low weight and wish I could be that small again. However, I can’t live in the past and I can’t beat myself up anymore. I am ready to continue moving forward, working on improving my healthy lifestyle, and helping other people do the same thing in their lives. The greatest reward for me is to help others realize how they can really live the life they dream of living, whether it be to lose weight, go after their dream career, or whatever else represents happiness and success in their lives. On SparkPeople, helping others and providing feedback was more than just helping them. It helped me to stay on track too!
Bonnie McConaughy is the owner and founder of Inspire the Best You (www.inspirethebestyou.com), where she writes about healthy living and personal growth, and provides health and wellness coaching. She is also a freelance and ghostwriter (www.bonwriterfreelance.biz).
Thank you to Bonnie for sharing your story. You have inspired me to try harder, because like you, I know I can do this, I just have to stick with it. Although we are travelling on different paths, there are some similarities in our journeys. Keep working on your goals, and you will achieve them, I know it! Something that resonates with me after reading is that you are not alone, you have a support system, and you are building your own skills to help others. This is really a great thing, to take what you have learned to help you guide others in their journies. I wish you all the best, and have faith that you are going to be a success.
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 19, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Today started with Scotch Lick and grab and go. I had scheduled my morning to help a friend look into setting up her own blog. I am in no way an expert at blogging, and I don’t claim to be. But as a few friends helped me get this Blog up and running, I decided to pay it forward.
It was really neat to see someone else put their own creativity into action! We started with some basic conversation, and she figured things out. She has some work left to do and is capable enough with her own experience and training to move forward on her own. I am only a message away if she needs any more help.
I am fighting to stay awake. Waiting to find out the plans for the evening. If it is a Game night, I will have to start preparing snacks and get done what I can here in the meantime. If it ends up being a guys gaming night, I will work on the cleaning challenge. Either way, I will be busy. I have the kitchen to clean, a grocery list to make, and general cleaning to do.
I have had 2 cups of coffee with breakfast. I am having a sugar free vanilla iced coffee now. I AM STILL TIRED! So I have cranked the tunes and will make 1 more coffee. Soon it will be too late to have any more coffee, but if I am busy enough, I can still tire myself out enough to sleep tonight. I need the help today. I am a night owl with a day job. So I tend to be more active in the evenings. Sometimes a little too late. I struggle with it, but my health is better with the 9-5 schedule, so I try to go to bed early when I need to. Sometimes I even make it to bed early. Not on the weekends, though. That is the problem I am having right now. So I am going to make 1 more coffee. A power snooze might have to happen, though. When my body wants sleep this desperately, I have to consider if it is necessary or not. A power nap may just what I need, followed by that one more cup of coffee. Then I’ll head into the kitchen, and unload that dishwasher, that I ran last night. I need to focus, and that is a good place to start.
Had the nap. Never found any energy. I have spent some time on Linked In today. It was time for an update, and it is another way to share this Blog. I am disappointed that I did not get more accomplished around the house today, but the networking has to be worked on also.
My Linked In Profile
Tomorrow is a new day, filled with possibilities. And a new To Do List! Enjoy your weekend!
