Wassup my peeps - did ya miss me??

I still struggle with pretzels, peanut butter, peanuts, crackers, and sugar free cookies.  I try not to have those things everyday, but I feel like I have them too often nonetheless.  When I do buy them, I only get a single-serving pack at the store because I do not trust myself to portion out a larger bag.  It goes back to my being way too greedy.  I still struggle with weekend grazing and “splurging.”  So bottom line, my eating could be a lot better than what it is, but it could also be a lot worse.  On the positive side, I am still completely “sugar-free, bread-free, red-meat free, and pork-free” for over two years now.  And I honestly don’t miss any of it!  I am still practically white rice and white pasta free – I can count on two hands the number of times I have had any over the past 2+ years.  I have oatmeal every work day (usually for lunch and usually with ½ cup fresh raspberries – YUM!!!!!), I have a protein shake for breakfast every work day, and I get in 80 ounces of water every work day – I say every “work day” because it can get ugly on weekends.  Also on the positive side, I take my vitamins and supplements every day – weekends included – and I generally eat pretty well.  It’s just frustrating to still be “dieting” yet not losing any weight but simply maintaining. 

On the exercise front.  Remember, I started Jari Love’s workouts last February to bump up the strength training and muscular endurance?  They’re tough, tough workouts but God has blessed me so much and I am seeing some real progress.  Not “progress” in terms of weight loss or clothing sizes but “progress” in terms of what I am able to do, the muscle definition especially in my upper body, and my overall fitness level.  Oh girls, y’all gotta sit down for this, when I first started Jari’s workouts, I had been doing weight training with Denise Austin, Buns of Steel, etc which are really good, solid beginner to intermediate level workouts.  But I knew it was time to increase the intensity of the weight training, so I bought some heavier dumbbells and Jari’s three advanced level Ripped DVD’s (“Ripped: Slim and Lean”, “Ripped to the Core”, and “Ripped 1000”).  At first, I could not finish all the reps in any of the workouts – they’re all hi/rep – low/weight workouts – and I could not finish the cardio intervals in Ripped 1000 at all.  Well, now six months later, the high impact cardio intervals in Ripped 1000 are a piece of cake and I can do all the reps in “most” of the weight training segments.  I still cannot finish the shoulder or chest tracks in any of the workouts – but give me three more months!  Anyway, here’s where the sitting down part comes in – are ya sitting?  When I first started Ripped I could only do maybe 15 pushups – 10 on my toes then I’d have to drop down to my knees for the last five.  The push-up track on Ripped 1000 (which is the hardest of the 3) is what Jari calls a “push-up party” and it is 70 reps.  Guess how many I can do?  ALL of them, baby.  That’s right all 70 push-ups – I can do the first 42 military style on my toes then I have to drop down to my knees for the last 28.  Imagine that – pre-op, I was the BMI-over-50-poster-child now 2+ years post-op I’m down on the floor doing 70 push-ups.  Most men in fairly decent shape cannot even do that.  Ripped to the Core has a shorter push-up track, 48 I think, half are regular pushups and half are “spider pushups” and I can do ALL of them on my toes!  Now, do not have perfect form for every rep, but I am working on that and on being able to do them all from my toes, which Jari says takes about a year to work up to doing.  I’ve also just finished a two-week Barry’s Bootcamp rotation, which for me is another real accomplishment.  I can’t do Barry’s cardio, because it is just ridiculously high impact and I do not have bionic knees, but I did two weeks of his weight training program which is also very, very tough and uses much heavier weight than Jari’s DVDs.  I’ve also kicked up the cardio intensity and have gotten rid of all my beginner level workouts and replaced them with more advanced level workouts with more impact since I can actually jump now.  That was a rather long-winded way of saying exercise is going really well.  Diet.. meh – exercise… oh yeah!  I can do kick boxing, step aerobics, pilates, cardio dance with complex choreography, weight lifting, Leslie Sansone’s 5 mile walk DVD, her DVD’s with jogging intervals… all without a second thought.  God is so amazing!

Let’s see what else.  I told my older sister for the 100^th time to stop asking me about my clothing size.  She’s always been the smallest sister but now that I am the smallest, she’s about to flip out.  *rolls eyes*  I’m still chronically single with no dates in site.  My car is being retarded – to the tune of about a grand in necessary repairs.  Oh well, it is ten years and at least I do not have a car payment.  I still have not updated my pics but I’ll get around to it… eventually.  School is about to restart and yes, it still sucks.  Thankfully I finish in May.  My mother has been in the hospital a couple of times this summer with various health issues, but she’s doing okay now relatively speaking.  My boss is still an idiot who would not know the truth or an actual day’s work if she fell over it.  I’m still trying to pay off that last credit card so I can buy a house in February or March.  I have not been in for any plastics consults yet.  I cannot get anything done until summer ’08 the earliest, so why get myself all excited now?  I did get my two front teeth bonded.  One was chipped and the other all uneven but they look pretty good now.  The dentist billed them as multi-surface fillings, so my dental insurance covered most of it. 

I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print.  I’m gonna go peruse some threads now and see what y’all have been up to.

Hugs, Tracy