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Fitness and Nutrition Update

So I wanted to give everyone that still reads this an update on the fitness and nutrition changes I've made. We got a new gym a few months ago (Planet Fitness) in Orem about a mile or so from my house. As soon as I saw the 'coming soon' signage I knew I wanted to join. Well I did it. And I've been going almost every day. And I'm freaking in LOVE.

When I was taking prednisone for my ears everyday I gained close to 50 fucking pounds. Anyone that has been on that for an extended period of time knows it's inevitable. There's nothing you can do to stop it, don't even try. Anyway, the extra weight on my 5'3" frame is obviously not a good thing. I had this idea in my head that once I stopped taking it the weight would come off on it's own naturally. It didn't. So I faced it and made a choice about a month ago and I knew the only way I would start to look and feel normal again was to work the weight off through the gym and change my diet. So I bought a gym pass and am doing just that.

Originally, my goal was to just get my ass to the gym 4 times a week. But now, I go in with a purpose and push myself a little harder each day. I have tried all of the cardio machines available. I've never been a big fan of the bikes and the treadmill is hard on my joints. I landed my heart on the Arc Trainer. I LOVE it. The first time I got on it I did 5 minutes and thought I was going to DIE. 2 days later I got back on and went 20. And now I am doing no less than 35 minutes each time. It is super low impact on my joints but it burns calories twice as fast as the treadmill or elliptical. If you've not tried one I seriously recommend it. I am dripping in sweat when I get off that thing. It's magic. In addition, I am doing the 30 min full body circuit training they have set up 3x per week. That's good too and I feel my body (especially my back) getting stronger.

As far as my diet goes, that has completely changed. I used to eat 2 maybe 3 meals containing tons of processed crap a day. I've cut out everything processed. My diet consists of mostly fruits, vegetables, and whole wheats and grains. And I eat 5 small meals/snacks a day. I didn't (and don't plan to) cut out Coke and Dr. Pepper. That's not a realistic goal for me. I just seriously cut down. I have one can with lunch. I keep track of all my food intake and exercise on MyFitnessPal.com. Since I've made these changes (roughly around the 4th of January) I've lost 8 pounds. Go me go! I am sleeping a bit better at night and I don't eat based on emotion or what 'sounds good' anymore. I think of food as fuel now and it's changed everything. I'll do another update in a week.

In the last week....

I've fallen in love with these things!

  

Gym Magic

Blogger Tips Tutorial

So I seem to get quite a few inquiries each time I redesign my blog on how I do it and if I have any tips to give. First off THANK YOU! And it's got me thinking I want to put together a tutorial with tips and step by step instructions on how to create cool headers with cute fonts, how to add stat counters, pages, etc. This would be specific to the Blogger (Blogspot) platform because this is what I use. I am thinking of a video tutorial and/or instruction manual with screen shots. Would you guys be interested in something like this? Also, would you pay cash monies for it? What other things would you be interested in learning how to do with your blog? Let me know what you think in the comments or on my Facebook page.

Welcome 2012: Magic

Hello 2012! And welcome to my newly designed blog! I'm really excited for the new year! Instead of coming up with a list of resolutions on ways I will improve my life over the next year, I've decided to participate in the one word focus challenge I've seen going around the blogosphere. Basically, you pick a word and focus on it throughout the entire year. I debated on several words the last few weeks: warmth, strength, happy. But ultimately I decided to go with the word magic.

The last few years have been rough for me. I have focused more on all of the negative things around me more than ever before. Moving forward I want to focus on the more positive things in my life: things that make me smile, things that make me happy, things that are good for me, things that are magic. I'm going to do my best to post at least once a week on the magic in my life, but if it doesn't happen then so be it. I'm also going to be trying to do more book reviews.

So, to start things off, the weather right now is magic. Seriously. It's January and 43 degrees! It's been like this for weeks! No snow, no freezing my ass off when I get in the car, ahhh I love it!

Magic  is all of my shows starting up again after the holiday break like Biggest Loser, and Grey's Anatomy. Magic is falling in love with new shows like The Walking Dead and 2 Broke Girls.

It's been fun seeing everyone post about their resolutions and if you don't have anything in the works yet think about doing the word challenge. It's not as overwhelming as a big long list of things to do! Happy New Year everyone!