Urban Rebounding

You know who I hate?  People who DON’T SWEAT.  I CANNOT understand those magical girls I see at the gym who run treadmill marathons or do hardcore kickboxing and BARELY GLISTEN.  How do they do that??????

Me, I’m a sweater.  It’s disgusting.  I can’t even believe I’m writing about it on the Internet.  But the fact is, I sweat A LOT when I work out, and my face gets really red.  It’s not like, an unhealthy/I’m-gonna-die level of sweating, but it’s a lot more than these magical sweat-free women.  And I HATE people seeing me sweat like that.  This is why, all through college and beyond, I have always preferred to work out by myself.  Running buddies are not for me because God forbid I make one of my friends witness my sweaty, nasty, red-faced glory.  I also have always avoided any type of workout classes (aerobics, yoga, etc.) because I just don’t like feeling like people are watching me sweat!

But, yesterday I FINALLY overcame my self-consciousness and WENT TO A CLASS!  There was finally one offering at my gym that just sounded too FUN to pass up, despite my sweat-a-phobia.  What was it, you ask?

URBAN REBOUNDING…otherwise known as Trampoline Class!!!!!!The idea of working out by jumping on a trampoline brought back memories of my favorite part of gymnastics when I was in elementary school…the trampoline!  Seriously, bouncing like Tigger is SO FUN!!!  So despite my apprehensions, I finally tried out the Urban Rebounding class last night.  And it was really fun!!!  It’s basically like aerobics and tae-bo type moves while bouncing on your “rebounder.”  There were only 4 of us plus the instructor, who was super-peppy and fun (despite being one of those crazy non-sweaters) and blasted hip-hop music as we bounced around for half an hour.  The moves weren’t hard but definitely got your heart rate up there.  I certainly felt like I had don’t just as much as I do in 30 minutes on the elliptical, if not more.  My legs really felt it.  It was so nice to have my brain engaged in trying something new for a change rather than just busting out a tedious 30 minutes on a machine.  And yes, I did sweat more than the other girls in the class but they both took breaks and I didn’t which I told myself meant I am still in better shape than them despite my sweaty pits.  Score!  I’m so glad I finally went to a class and took one step toward getting over my silly self-consciousness.  It was so fun that I’ll definitely go back, and I even feel inspired to try more classes.  Maybe Justine will take me with her to hip-hop dancercize when I’m back in Ohio and I can get all sweaty there too while finally learning some rhythm!

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Missing My Love

In Swahili there’s no word for “miss” as in “I miss you.”  It’s a language distinctly lacking in words to describe emotions, and “miss” is one of the words that just isn’t there.  This made it so hard to explain my feelings to Tanzanians when I was there, because a lot of the time I was consumed with the loneliness of missing my friends and family.  I thought of Zach every single night as I fell asleep and often dreamed about him.  The missing was a constant ache despite how much I tried to ignore it.  I realized that the loneliness of KNOWING there’s a perfect person out there for you and not being with him is worse than the loneliness of just being single.  And you can’t tell people how much you miss the guy you’re in love with back home because their language has no words to describe it!

Fast forward a year and a half.  We haven’t spent even a week apart since I got back from Africa.  Now, Zach is working on construction project that is 2 HOURS AWAY from home.  It sucks!!!  We keep hoping that he’ll be offered a job closer to home, but so far no such luck.  This puts us in quite a pickle.  If he wants to come home at night he basically loses half the day’s money in gas costs.  Argh!  So he’s been camping out, sleeping in his truck in 100-degree desert heat most nights and just coming home once a week.

I miss him!!!!!  I can’t believe how lucky I am to have a partner who will endure such annoying circumstances to make our dreams a reality.  But I’m just so used to being with him that the world seems duller when he’s not around.  I can’t believe how much I miss him when he’s just gone for a few days at a time.  It’s crazy.  All I do when he’s gone is eat ice cream and watch Grey’s Anatomy, lol.  Regressing to the sad, single girl life.  Ultimately, though, it helps me realize how blessed I am to have a person I never want to be without.  Being able to miss someone like this is extraordinary.  It’s kind of a gift.

Childhood Myths

…or, Lies My Mom and Grandma Told Me Which It Took Me Way Too Long to Realize ARE NOT TRUE

1. Bay leaves are poisonous.  OMG this is embarrassing.  But I just recently bought some bay leaves and was using one in some spaghetti sauce.  When I served it I told Zach to make sure to watch out for the bay leaf and not eat it.  He was like, “Why?”   “Because they’re poisonous,” I said.  He proceeded to laugh uproariously at me and ask, logically, “If they’re poisonous, why do you cook with them?????????”  Then he ate the bay leaf!!!  And HE DIDN’T DIE.

2. Hiccups mean you’re tired.  I don’t even know where this came from, but every time I got the hiccups as a child my mom would tell me I must be tired and should take a nap.  It wasn’t until a couple years ago, sitting at a bar with Bryan, Justine, and a cute hockey player I was supposed to get along with (this was before I met Zach) that I learned that this was not true.  How did I learn this?  By drinking a tall beer, getting the hiccups and then saying something incredibly dumb, like, “Oh, I guess I am kind of tired.”  Of course they were all like “What????” and laughed at me.

3. Bees can’t sting you if you’re swinging.  My sister and I were incredibly TERRIFIED of getting stung by bees when we were kids.  This, also, came from my mom, who passed her horrible fears along to us.  It was so bad that anytime we even saw a bee anywhere in the yard we would run inside, panicking.  Finally, one day, my grandma told us that if we saw a bee we should just “Stay still until it goes away, or go swing on your swing-set, because bees can’t sting you if you’re swinging.”  Oh Grandma, your distracting suggestion was taken as GOSPEL TRUTH and we believed for many, many years that there was some awesome bee-proof forcefield around our swing-set, and that as long as we were on it, THEY COULD NOT GET US.  From then on, anytime we saw a bee anywhere in the yard, we would CHARGE to the swings and start madly pumping as hard as we could.

Call me gullible, call me blonde, whatever.  The real question is this:  Why did you tell me these things Mom????  You don’t really believe them, do you???   (#3 I kind of understand.  It was a good distraction for us.  I don’t thing Grandma meant us to take it so seriously!)

What silly lies did your parents tell you when you were a kid?

Operation Bikini: Update 3

Remember I said I’d write again after I weighed myself today?  Well, I’m doing it!  Accountability, eh?

I feel great today because not only did I do a great job eating right and exercising through the weekend, but I weighed myself today for the first time in months and it was not as high a number as I expected!  I don’t want to write out the official digits on the Internet, but suffice it to say, I actually lost 4 pounds since the last time I weighed myself despite my sporadic eating ways!

So, instead of the 20-24 pounds I thought I had to lose, I really only have 18!  So this whole shebang could be accomplished in only 9 weeks!!!  9 weeks ain’t so bad!!  Woohoo!!!

I’m feeling happy and in control today!  September 12 is the official goal date.  (A little past bikini season in the US, but not in Colombia!)  I know I can stick to this and get the “freshman 15” off for good!!!

New Series: Photo Favorites

I was racking my brain for inspiration today and I thought of a cool, easy, post series idea.  I love looking through my old photos because so many of them tell great stories, are super silly, or just bring back good memories.  So every once in awhile I’ll just post a photo I’ve taken, tell you the where/when/why, and maybe say a few more words.  Hopefully this will also encourage me to take more pictures so that I have continuous fodder for this series!

Here’s the first one:

Me and MoMo, one of my Peace Corps besties, during one of our “under-the-mango-tree” Swahili lessons.  Probably still our first month in Tanzania (June or July 2009).  What do you think of my braided hair?  I actually really liked the result, but it took HOURS of sitting still while my host aunt pulled on my head to get it done! ❤ Kibaoni (the name of our homestay village, where we lived with host families during Peace Corps training).

All our world maps are outdated now!

Today was a remarkable day as South Sudan celebrated it’s independence and became the world’s newest nation!  Click here for some amazing pictures from BBC News.  Let’s all pray that things will continue to grow more peaceful and that South Sudan will succeed as an independent nation!  Just thinking about what people in that part of the world have gone through for decades now is incredibly sobering.  Celebrating this momentous victory with them today reminds me not to sweat the small stuff!

Source: BBC News

Operation Bikini: Update 2

Everyone falls off the wagon sometimes, right???

Right????

‘Cause I definitely did.  Gulp.

Despite my best intentions, I have kind of sucked at my eating recently.  Our trip to Mexico, having lots of couchurfers, and actually doing stuff with friends recently has led to me not following my rules and eating/drinking way too much bad stuff recently.

But, I’m back, because I am not a quitter!!!  However, it is time to seriously get my butt in gear.  I’m hoping that the time ticking down to our road-trip departure will serve as good motivation for me.  If I get serious now, I can still lose 14 pounds by the time we leave on August 22 and be almost done by then!!!  My goal is to lose 20-24 pounds total.  So, in drastic measures, I’ve decided to eliminate the flex days.  I knew I would abuse them, and I certainly did.  Achieving this goal is about sacrifice, and I just need to get my mind around that.  Of course if it’s a truly special occasion or something I will still let myself go a day without counting.  But by allowing myself 2 flex days a week I was just waiting for those days and then stuffing my face to the max.  Not good for learning moderation.

So this is it: 1000 calories per day, exercise every day.  I can totally be at my goal weight by the time we get back to Ohio!!!!!

Now let me celebrate some small victories:

-I have been doing consistently pretty well on my exercise.  Climbing, hiking, biking, gymming it up.  I finally bought new running shoes that actually provide support so I’m not hurting my feet anymore.  Now I’ll be able to keep running outside once we’re on our trip and I don’t have gym access.

-Last night I had a couple glasses of wine with girlfriends but kept within my 1000-cal limit!  I just had a light snack instead of a meal when I got home, then went to bed.

-Today I got a 6-mile bike ride and a bunch of crunches/push-ups in all despite the heat and before 11am.  Getting exercise done early is a great way for me to make sure I get it done!

-I baked something that DIDN’T INVOLVE CHOCOLATE!  Shocker, I know.  Tomato Rosemary Scones.  We’ll see what Zach thinks of them.  I am getting better at baking for him but not indulging myself.  Not having chocolate-filled goodies definitely helps though.

-I’m making these Chipotle Squash Fritters for dinner tonight.  I love trying new, inventive recipes; plus this sounds delicious and super-healthy!  I have been doing a good job making dishes that are heavy on the veggies and light on the cheese and dairy lately.

Must make myself update more on this un-fun topic.  I think I have to get back on the scale too.  That’ll happen sometime next week, after I continue my good habits for the rest of this one.  Then I’ll post another update.  I CAN do this.  Positive thinking, yeeehaw!!!

Yay for a productive day off!  Of course I wish I was working since we desperately need $$, but I’ve used today to bike, bake, blog, (hahaha alliteration!) and now I’ll be studying some Spanish and reading my awesome book about the Colombian drug trade.