Boot Camp Is Coming

It's official, I've signed up and paid for boot camp. My first 4 week session begins on Monday at 5:30am. I'm super duper excited! I know I'm going to have a transition into waking up and getting in active mode. Even tougher is going to be making myself go to bed by 9:30 so I can get an adequate amount of sleep. It'll all be tough, but I've done this before, so I'll do it again.

I go for my pre camp assessment on Saturday. It's during this time that I get weighed in, have my measurements taken, body fat percentages, and a nutritional seminar. I'm nervous about my numbers mainly because I know they are atrocious. I can see and feel the growth that my body has experienced over the past several months...it's really quite ridiculous. Maybe all the scary numbers are what I need to see to get back on track....AGAIN.

So the plan is to take 3 sessions of boot camp...that's 12 weeks. In August I'll start the running session, which is 6 weeks. There will be some boot camp/running overlap which I'm hoping will fight off any potential of early plateaus.

The boot camp registration form asked what my fitness and/or weight loss goals were. Since I share way tmi with you all anyway, I may as well share what I wrote. I want to drop two pants sizes and run a non-stop 5k. My running is still pitiful, but on it's way back to where I once was - over 3 miles.

I'm also seriously considering joining weight watchers, but I'm still on the fence about that one. Honestly, I wish I was willing to pay for nutr.isystem. I wouldn't have to grocery shop or cook....it can't get much better than that. However, I'm not willing to pay that much money.

Since starting back to work this week, I haven't been drinking much water. I'm a huge water lover, but I haven't had much time to continually refill my sports bottle at the water cooler every 20 minutes, let alone go to the bathroom, which is always the result of my constant water drinking.

All in all, I'm back in the zone and focused on shedding some pounds and inches. It feels like it's January 1st or something, lol. Hopefully by the real January 1st I'll look and feel better than I do now.

~ Ciao

Twenty Nine Candles

Today is my 29th Birthday! I love my birthdays and personally think mine should be an international holiday, lol. For now it will remain my own personal holiday. The cake on the left is the cake I wish I had this year. It's so cute and funky!

I'm here all alone this year, but I still plan to go out this evening and do something. I think I'm going to hit up a wine bar I've heard about and have a couple of flights and maybe a quick dinner.

I'm hoping that my 29th year will be amazing. I won't be doing as much as I previously thought because I'm really focused on making a major purchase next summer. I will, however still do some fun things, starting with Labor Day. The first homegirl turns 30 this August, but I think we're going to celebrate with her on Labor Day!!! The second one turns 30 in November, so that'll be another big party time!!!

With many new things going on in my life right now, it's hard to tell what this next year of life will bring, but whatever it is I know it will be great like all the others before it.

Shout out to all the Cancers!!!

~ Ciao

Happy (Belated) July

Yesterday I remembered that I didn't do a Happy July post. What in the world was I thinking about that I forgot. And, none of my wonderful readers reminded me...hmph. Well, better 7 days late than never, lol.

June was a hectic month with the moving, wrapping up work projects, moving, hanging out like a 21 year old, moving, ending my drought, and did I mention moving.

Good thing I didn't have any goals because they probably would have suffered...sigh.

For the month of July I am back to normal meaning I have some goals to accomplish. Here goes:

1. Lose 5 pounds. That number looks so huge right now, but I'm going to try really hard (crossing fingers, and doing a crunch, lol)

2. Find a volunteer organization. I really don't feel like shelling out new dues for this Jun.ior League Chapter, so I'm looking for an alternative right now.

3. Set up a lunch meeting with my counterparts from surrounding cities.

4. Start Bootcamp!

5. Fine tune my financial budget.

Any goals for you all this month?

Welcome

My first day at work was wonderful. Busy, but wonderful. I don't think I've ever been so busy on a first day before. The first 20 minutes I got settled in my office, checked the 50 emails that I already had, and found a note pad and pen for the meetings that were lined up. All day it was meeting after non-stop meeting. And, these weren't only introductory meetings, they were "here's the deep end, jump in" meetings.

I learned a lot about how my new colleagues think, some of the interesting things going on, and my role in all of that. I also heard an earful of information about my predecessor...none of which was helpful , but still interesting.

For some reason I was suprised that there isn't more diversity in the organization...at least not the aspects I was exposed to today. We had an executive team meeting and there is only one other black person apart of that group. I've come to expect this in my field, but I still thought there would be more...especially more non-black minorities. Despite all that, I got great vibes from everyone. They all seem happy to have me on board, and I'm certainly happy to be there!

I can already see some of the operational differences between this organization and my previous ones...I love the centralization (I think that's essential at the local level). There's more, but I won't bore you.

After work, I went to the gym..yay! It was very crowded, but I had access to the machines I needed. The weather was actually more mild today...still hot, but not AS hot as it's been, lol.

After having a day of work under my belt, I feel like everything is coming together wonderfully! At this very moment I feel so blessed.

PS - I still need to change my blog, I just haven't gotten around to it...sigh. I need to hurry up!

Here We Go Again...

I'm back on my fitness kick...again. I got my gym membership transfered last week, and I've been going to the gym everyday. I have only eaten out three times since moving here, which means I've been a cooking machine.

When I lived in DC I did a bootcamp for a few months and saw amazing results. I've discovered one here as well, it's actually the same franchise. I'm going to sign up for that for 3 months, and also join the jogging/running club I told you all about. The latter is twice per week, so I'm going to do bootcamp 3 days per week instead of five.

The only bad part is that the running session that I wanted to start this month is full, so I have to wait until the middle of august. That means I have to run at the gym...it's too hot here to run outside. I have to continue adjusting to it for a while.

I'm holding off from attaching a goal to all of this, well other than me completing the 12 weeks of bootcamp and the 6 weeks of the jogging/running program.

I'm starting to feel more and more out of shape and before long, if I don't do something it's going to effect my confidence. I know I'm in the state where everything is bigger, but I don't want to be apart of that, lol. By the way, I've never seen so many white women with large butts as I have in the nearly two weeks I've been here...haha.

Public Displays Of Affection

I know that pda isn't for everyone, and I also realize that their are different levels to it. As I've been exploring Dallas, I've noticed lots of pda. The fact that I've noticed it so much makes me believe there wasn't much of it in other places I've lived, or maybe I didn't people watch as intently. I think it's the former because I've always enjoyed people watching.

At any rate, I love pda. I'm not talking about the kind that embarrases even the spectator because the participants and hot and heavy. I'm talking about holding hands, kisses on the cheeks and lips, rubbing a shoulder, smelling hair, and other stuff like that. In past relationships I've been with guys who didn't like any level of pda and those that can't get enough. I prefer the guy that enjoys pda.

To me it's just so intimate. When I'm with someone that I really care about, I love just touching them...I like body heat, so to feel that from a hand, lips, arm, etc makes me happy. When I don't like someone I cringe when they touch me or even look like they want to touch me.

Even when it comes to my mother and my daughter, I love pda. I always like holding my daughter's hand or walking with my hand on her shoulder. If we're at lunch or dinner or anywhere sometimes I'll randomly give her a kiss and say I love you. Same with my mother. We used to hold hands in public all the time when I was growing up. It's not just about being in public either...I just like affection. Growing up my mother and granny gave me so much of it that I thrive on it now.

How do you feel about pda??

Blogger's Block

I've had blogger's block the past week or so. It's not that things haven't been going on, I just haven't been able to put it all into a series of interesting words.

The daughter is gone to Florida for the remainder of the summer and since she left I've been exploring on my own and with a friend here who used to live in DC. Yesterday she had a bbq that was super fun. I had way too many frozen margaritas and baked beans, but it was fun nonetheless!

Here is some randomness I've thought about recently:

The Sarah Palin thing has me scratching my head all over again. I'm not mad at her for bailing on the people who voted her into office if in fact she's doing it for the good of her family. As a mother, I can respect that. I know it wouldn't have been my approach, I actually think all of the media hate (or interest) toward her and her family could have provided some teaching moments in resilience to the kids. However, I can understand how small a job (even as Governor) is compared to one's family. With that said, if that heffa decides to run for the US Senate, POTUS, or Mayor of Wasilla, or any elected office I hope she's laughed out of the race. To quit on the people she's supposed to serve is disgraceful if it's only being done to further a greater political agenda...That's my two cents on that.

Let me preface the next topic by saying I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead, but what was up with this 20 year old and Steve McNair. I read an article (while keeping in mind that everything I read isn't true) about their dealings. Keep in mind McNair was married with kids. Cheating makes my head hurt, especially married cheating. It's sad that there business has to be exposed around a tragedy.

I just need to say one more time that I'm feeling the young Canadian, Mr. Aub.rey Dra.ke Graham.

I start the new gig tomorrow and I'm really excited. I'm going to miss my all day explorations, but that's what the weekends are for!!

Ok, I'm making blogger's block hit the road. I'll be back to daily blogging tomorrow.

By the way, I'm counting down to my Birthday on Wednesday. I'm going to be the Big Two-Nine!!!

That's all for now :)

~ Ciao