Welcome Back!

It sure has been a minute or two, hasn't it?!

We went on vacation.  And it was amazing!  We went to Branson and just spent time together.  See, since we work opposite shifts, spending time together is kind of rough.  Especially when you through up to 4 days of training a week... but that's ok!

Thoughts on a Thursday Night

Tonight was so much fun!  Judo was tonight. And amazing things happened tonight!!

Because I get there after the warm up, thanks to work and traffic in St. Louis, I have to do my own warm up.  Tonight, it was 3 laps around the mat.  Now, I just have to say... I am not a runner.  Never really have been.  Doubt I ever will be... but tonight, for the first time, I made it around the mat 3 times!  Without stopping!  And I didn't pop a lung!!!  MORE PROGRESS!

After I ran, it was time to learn.  Throw #4 - O Goshi (I believe) which is Hip Wheel.  Once I threw Sensei Jeremy a couple of times, he then threw me.  For the first time!  AND I LOVED IT!! I understand now why people "WEE!" threw the air!  It was so much fun!  I never thought that I would enjoy getting thrown.  But it was great!!

After being thrown a few times, we learned some choke techniques.  Then we worked on mat work.

With the 32nd North/South Judo Tournament coming up, Sensei had Reagan spar with us once she finished up coaching the littles.  Yes, even with me.  And after a little bit, I actually took her down!  Maybe she "let" me, maybe she didn't.  Only she will really know.  We both fell, tried to high five and MISSED terribly, and died laughing!  That's what I really enjoy about Judo.  It's fun, and so easy to start laughing!

What else can I say that I haven't already said?  Tonight was so much fun!  I never in a million years thought that I would be here:  Being thrown and enjoying it!  Running laps on the mat and not quitting!  Sparring and throwing a blue belt!

HUGE shout out to Sensei Jeremy for believing in me, especially when I very first started Judo, because I sure didn't.  I went into to class feeling very self conscience. uncoordinated, and unable to even tie my belt the proper way.  It's crazy to think how far I have come in such a short time.

Until tomorrow friends!!!

Breaking the Habit

I have a question... why is it SO HARD to change habits as an adult?

I mean, even as adults, there are consequences.  So, what's the big deal?!  Why is behavior modification so much easier seemingly as a child?

It feels like all the planning, prepping, scheduling, tracking, and following certain criteria has resulted in my still wanting the bad stuff.  I could eat the crap out of a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg right now... Have we really gone so far in altering foods to train our bodies to enjoy the terrible stuff that there is no going back?

Sunday cheat day is such a wonderful time of the week!  I try not to go completely crazy, but it's the day that we throw the rule book to the side and enjoy what we are craving.  Sometimes it's an ice cold Dr. Pepper, or a nice hot slice of pepperoni pizza.  Sometimes, it's even ice cream!  

And then Monday comes...

Monday's are the worst for me!  I wake up wanting all of the bad stuff that I enjoyed the day before.  Usually by Tuesday, my mind and body have gotten it together enough that eating like a rabbit isn't so bad.  But those sugar hangovers are ROUGH to get through sometimes.

On a different note, I have created for myself a new food journal.  In the time that I started tracking everything for my nutritionist, I had gone completely through an entire notebook.  While they aren't expensive, I really didn't want to buy a new note book every month... I do want to keep all of the information so I can look back and see my progress.  So, I created a binder with pages that includes all of my tracked information.  When one month comes to an end, I can see a general outline for the month, and each day if I want.  Today is only day 3 of using, and so far, I think I like it!

I am tracking quite a lot of information, most comes from my tracking between myfitnesspal.com and my fitbit.

Daily, I track:

Calories IN

Calories OUT

Steps

Sleep - Time sleeping, Awake, and Restless

Food

Activities

Weekly, I track:

Measurements

Weight

General Notes

I hope to be able to keep 1 year in each binder.  Which means I HAVE to be in this for the long haul.  My plan is to get monthly dividers, and keep notes on things that happen in that month.  For example, my bib from the recent 5k is going to get stapled to my May monthly sheet!  I think it will be the best way for me to keep track of my progress in 1 central location.

If you see me, and you see me with a green binder (because I didn't have an orange one...) and you want to see it, just say so!  I will gladly show anyone who wants a look.  Might give you an idea on how to track your own progress!

Muay Thai tonight and Strength Training!  I hope my legs hold out!  This rain is hurting...

Migraine in Action

Dear God!  I would never EVER wish these things on anyone!  EVER!

I have had migraines off and on since high school.  At first, I thought it was me back, but I had regular adjustments with a chiropractor - I have 2 in my family, so that was my first choice of treatment.  Even with regular adjustments, I still had migraines.

Now, my migraines are different each time.  Sometimes I see flashes of light accompanied by blinding pain.  Sometimes I get nose bleeds, those don't happen very often but I still get them.  Sometimes I just throw up, have blinding pain, and go to bed with an ice bag - These are the most typical.

I thought it was my wisdom teeth, since they were coming in and eventually became infected. Had them removed, and still had headaches.

I have tried everything!  Different medications, supplements, vitamins... The only thing that seems to help when they come on is sleep.  Which really gets old, when I am constantly requesting PTO for migraines at work.

Since the beginning of 2016, the only time I have seemed to get a migraine is when the barometric pressure changes... Basically, when its about to rain, I know it!  

My nutritionist has taken dairy out of my diet, for now, and I have noticed that I haven't had as many migraines lately.  While I am not saying that my diet and exercise is the cure, but I can assure you it has helped!  

So here I sit, woken up by a migraine in the middle of the night to throw up, typing out a blog post waiting for the meds to kick in so I can sleep this off.  

How do you feel today???

Friday Randomness!

Wow!  Friday is finally here!  It’s such a special day, especially to those of us that today signifies the weekend is around the corner!

For me, it also starts my vacation!!  We aren’t going anywhere, just hanging around the house and getting some things accomplished.  Just some spring cleaning, working on the SRT-4, and hanging out together.  I am sure plenty of movies will be seen, such as Batman v. Superman!! 

I have a couple things I want to share today, so bear with me!  I know many of you are excited about different things I said I would post today… so let me start with my exciting morning!

This is NOT an April fool’s joke, and no… Baby Loness is not making an appearance.  But something else super exciting happened this morning!

I wake up this morning, like I do… and after the bathroom (don’t worry, I will spare you that trip) I come back to the bedroom to start getting dressed.  BUT FIRST!! I pull the scale out of its resting place, and have a serious conversation with it.  It went something like this “please work with me today… don’t make this week of hard work be in vain.”  It just sat there on the floor, staring back at me.  Because, well… you know… scales have eyes!  They see the most vulnerable part of me.

Now, I am not 100% sure if I am ready to reveal the actual numbers or not… well, actually, yes I am!  I am using this blog as a journal for myself ALONG WITH accountability to my friends and family!  SO, I guess I have no choice but to reveal the numbers.

I started our journey on January 5^th at the heaviest I have ever been in my entire life… 291 and some change.  This is why we started to begin with!  The doc said that in order for me to have a baby safely, I should consider losing some weight, and finally I agreed with her…

Today, my scale looked me in the face and flashed 267.4 on its digital screen.  I was shocked, and thought Happy April Fool’s to me… I rubbed my eyes, I was still half asleep at this point, turned the bedroom lights on, and stepped on again.  The little blue light started flashing 267.4 at me again!  Just then, the hubs rounded the corner to make sure I was up… and I showed him what it said in my disbelief!  Sure enough, he confirmed 267.4!!!!!  24 pounds down and out the window!!!!!  Today is a good day, regardless of what happens!!  I still have a LONG way to go, but my gosh what an awesome way to start Friday AND vacation!!

Now, onto another topic I promised I would reveal today!  In muay thai training, we use boxing gloves and shin pads:

We don't have the head gear or the chest guard, yet...

But just like any other sports equipment, they tend to stink after a while.  Badly!  And usually what happens is that once the stink gets out of control, most people toss the gear and get new.  I am here to tell you, that can get stupid expensive!  For 2 people, we spent over $200.00 on our gear, and that doesn’t include our super awesome mouth guards, or my gi for judo and jujitsu.

Thank you to the wonderful world of Facebook, a friend of mine posted about an all-natural spray that she used on some soccer cleats that were originally not allowed in her friend’s home.  Then she shared that after 1 complete spray down, the cleats are now sitting in the living room of said house!

Being a generally skeptical person, I asked her if she was for real.  She told me that she wouldn’t share it on Facebook if it wasn’t true.  I asked her if she thought that it would work on kickboxing gear, she didn’t see why it wouldn’t.  So, I bought a bottle.

When I received the spray, I won’t lie… I was a little leery.  It was a small 8.45 ounce bottle with a spray nozzle included, and it just looked like skim milk.  I put the nozzle on, pulled out my gear and sprayed 1 spray.  It smelled amazing!  Kind of floral, but it wasn’t over powering by any means.  It smelled “clean” like when you put fresh sheets on the bed, and they smell “clean” I was hooked!  All of my gear got a good soaking, the bottle says for the first application to soak thoroughly.  I sprayed my gear bag, and I even sprayed my gi!  And then I sprayed my husband’s gear!

The ultimate test was a set of shin pads one of my coaches keeps at the gym… under the cage… because his wife refuses to allow them into the house.  I soaked them down on Monday night and put them back.  I figured smelling them immediately would probably not be wise.  After Judo last night, my coaches daughter (who had just been promoted to a BLUE BELT!! GO ROWDY GO!!) and I pulled them out and gave them a sniff test.  She was shocked!! And then ran them to her dad and shoved them in his face!  HE WAS SHOCKED!!  They smelled like shin pad, NOT STINK!! THEY SMELLED CLEAN!!

I am no expert, at all, but I am convinced that the magic in this little bottle WORKS!!  The company is Norwex, the spray is called Sportzyme, and my friend is Raechel Haas!  Yes, I am shamelessly plugging this product, because it works!  My gear smells better than brand new!  It smells clean!  Go to her website here:

raechelhaas.norwex.biz

Message her about Sportzyme and all of the other amazing products that Norwex has to offer!  They are all natural, chemical free cleaners.  I have seen some of the products in action, and I have nothing but praise for them!

So, that is all for my Friday randomness!  Let me know what you think!  I will be updated the blog site itself and adding a few things, but if you like what you see, have a story to share, or a word of encouragement, comment away!!  I love to read about other people’s goals and achievements!  Also, comment below if there is anything you would like me to review - Good or Bad.  I am willing to try and share information.