Adapting to change

I haven’t posted here in a long while, mainly because I’ve been exhausted. Work has also kept me busy. Suffice to say, it’s been a life-altering time for me.

Last month, I was feeling quite good about myself. I was figuring out my body, lost approximately 7 pounds despite my inability to lose weight for a number of years. I still struggled with IBS, but I finally felt like I had control. Then I found out I was pregnant.

This didn’t take me completely by surprise. My husband and I were trying for another child. I felt I was mentally prepared for this, but I wasn’t. I went from feeling in control of my body to not having any control at all. My daily workout routine fell apart due to morning sickness and dizziness and dwindled down to nothing. Instead of losing weight, I had to feel comfortable with gaining weight. My diet also took hit, since many of the foods I had been eating started causing me to be sick. This really made me feel down, still does, but I know my hormones are running haywire.

I’m still in the early stages of pregnancy, almost 10 weeks along. In the last week, I’ve been able to walk daily for about 20 minutes. My IBS exasperates my “morning sickness,” but I’ll need to stick to my diet as best as I can to manage it. I’m happy to be pregnant, but I need to come to terms with it. I’m not fully in control anymore and that’s okay.

Free Workouts: Hang Tight with MarC

There is nothing more that I love than free workouts. I do have a gym membership, but fitness doesn’t need to cost you money. All you need is the desire to get yourself into shape in the comfort of your own home, on the track, pool, or great outdoors.

However, sometimes it’s great to have someone to push you. That is one of the main reasons that exercise DVD’s are so popular. You have someone to guide you and motivate you into shape. The downside is that these videos can get pricey, many of the Beach Body programs are over $100, which is cost effective if you use them religiously, but $100 is still $100. After a while though, you get used to doing the same old routine, you’ve memorized Shaun T’s lines, get bored and slack off. That is why YouTube is so great for fitness, you can get a fresh workout everyday. ;)

Avoiding spending money is what led my to bodyrock.tv and Zuzka Light, but it also introduced me to a bunch of other awesome online fitness personalities. One of these is Hang Tight with MarC.

What I like about MarC is her abilty to breakdown each workout, spending time on going over proper form and offering variations for different workout levels. For this reason I think that she is GREAT for beginners at interval workouts. Both Bodyrock and Zuzana can be a bit much for someone starting out without already knowing proper form. MarC’s workouts can be equally challenging if you make them so. She offers new workouts on an almost daily basis, so please check out for videos when you get the chance.

Wellness update.

Everything has been going well. My insides seems to be happy and working at almost full capacity. ;) I decided to ditch the medication, lower my water intake to 6 glasses a day, and start drinking kombucha tea daily. This seems to be working well for me so far. I just have to start making my own kombucha because it is pricey stuff.

I have another obstacle which might inhibit my digestive and exercise progress, but it’s not IBS related.

I have a GI appointment tomorrow, do we’ll see how that goes.

Motivation... or lack thereof...

Reblogged from LydVicious Fitness:

Sometimes even I need help with it. I bet you didn’t think so, did you? Yes, it’s true! Let’s take today for instance. It’s dreary & raining outside, which is tough even for a normal person I think (been a long time since I’d consider myself  ”normal” so I’m only guessing) For me though, rain flares up my rheumatoid arthritis, making all my joints ache & scream.

Read more… 314 more words

Rethinking Breakfast: Cinnamon Sugar Quinoa with Greek Yogurt.

This is something I’ve been making quick either for breakfast or for a quick energy snack. It’s a nice change of pace from oatmeal and kids tend to like it.

All it requires is:

  • Cooked quinoa (I cook a whole batch in the rice cooker and then re-heat during the week as needed)
  • Brown sugar (I use Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Sugar and I only use 1/2 teaspoon for about a 1/2 cup of quinoa.)
  • Cinnamon to taste.
  • Greek Yogurt (I use Fage 0%) – optional

Combine the warm quinoa, brown sugar and cinnamon together until quinoa is evenly coated. Then add a dollop of Greek yogurt (or more, if you’re like me) on top if you so desire. I told you it was easy. ;)

Enjoy. :)

Drink review: GT’s Kombucha Cherry Chia

GT's Kombucha Cherry Chia and my desk clutter ;)

Kombucha is a drink that I heard about, but flew under my radar fro some reason. I just happened upon this bottle of kombucha whilst scoping out my local Whole Foods for lunch options. I was think about picking up a can of green tea when this bottle containing chia seeds caught my eye. I had to have it. There was a choice between Raspberry, Grape and Cherry. I chose the cherry obviously.

I glanced at the Nutrition Facts

1 bottle contains 150 calories. Not bad. I was purchasing a low cal tofu salad, so I could handle the extra 150 kcal. What I LOVED was that the whole bottle contained 8g of fiber. Hello! Welcome to my life. In addition to this, was added the probiotics and antioxidants.This is an IBSer’s dream drink. lol.

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is, from what I’ve read, an acquired taste. What GT has done here is mixed the kombucha with juice to mellow the flavor – the ratio is 95% tea to 5% juice and the addition of chia seeds. Also of note is that this is a raw drink, so most of the nutrients should be alive and well. :)

When opening the bottle, you get a bit of a vinegary smell from the fermentation, don’t let that sway you. The taste is tart with a bit of fizz from the fermentation and crunch from the seeds. I really enjoyed this. It’s kind of like candy, but good for you. :)

If you see this drink at your local health food store, give it a try.

Learn more about Synergy drinks here: http://www.synergydrinks.com/

 

 

Angelina’s arms

Photo courtesy of http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler

I hate to write this because I like Angelina Jolie. I used to have the biggest girl crush on her about 10 years ago. I’m just alarmed by the current lack of muscle in her upper body. She used to have arms and over the last few years, she her muscle mass has take a nose dive. What happened? Could be one of a number of reasons:

  • Undisclosed medical condition
  • Eating disorder
  • lack of exercise
  • stress

I’m not sure why she looks the way she looks currently, I just know that it isn’t a good look for her. I suspect that it is not a medical issue, so adding a few more calories to her diet and starting a weight training program might help. Personally, I think she needs to add Zuzka Light into her life. ;)

When your arms have their own twitter account. You know you have a problem.

This is further proof to me that a healthy lifestyle > losing weight to get skinny.

Bodyrock.tv vs Zuzka Light’s ZWOW’s

Both Bodyrock.tv and Zuzka Light put out short HiiT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts on YouTube that you can do for free.

I have been bodyrocking on and off for about 1 year, but I really started getting serious with it around the time that Zuzana Light left. I grew to like Zuzana quite a bit, she has an infectious, positive personality, so it was hard to get into the workouts with the new hosts. The new female face of Bodyrock.tv, Lisa-Marie, took some getting used to. She is definitely has a high energy vibe about her and her workouts are challenging. Some of the workouts are too reliant on special equipment, like the Lebert Equalizer, but they do give you alternative exercises to do – you just feel like you aren’t getting the maximum you can out of the workout (but that is all mental).

One thing I like that Bodyrock has done recently is they have added a beginning, intermediate and advanced workout. I love this because I can the beginner workout to days when I’m running and don’t feel like I can muster the energy for a full on HiiT. I can add the intermediate workout on days I’m not running. The advanced workouts are tough, I can’t do the pull-ups required, but that is something I have to work on.

Bodyrock Turn up The Music! workout:

Zuzana Light came out of hiding last month and we have been treated to weekly ZWOW’s (Zuzana’s Workout of the Week) on her YouTube channel – ZuzkaLight. These are also 10-30 minute HiiT style workouts. What I love about these is that you can see Zuzana doing the whole workout and you can try to keep up with her pace. The workouts don’t require much in the way of equipment – just some hand weights and kettlebells if you have them. They are not as intense as the Bodyrock workouts, but are very effective. You also don’t have that “NSFW” feeling while on Zuzana’s YouTube channel that you sometimes feel when viewing the Bodyrock site.

Zuzka Light’s ZWOW # 6:

I have to say that I enjoy  both Bodyrock and ZuzkaLight very much and I’m glad that we have these free workouts to keep us fit and motivated everyday.

The Squatty Potty

Having IBS means that you look up items online that you never thought you would look at before: http://squattypotty.com/

Now I’m wondering if this could help. :)

I started looking up squatting vs sitting for pooping and it seems like squatting works better for many people. There is a great write up on this on Mark’s Daily Apple. The photo illustration on the site makes sense too: It does seem like squatting gives you better pooping alignment. Lol! But can I ditch my western sensibilities enough to do this?

I don’t know.