Show me the money!

Guess who got a raise today!?!?! This girl! Last year I negotiated a two part raise, with part two starting in September, 2013 (now). I got a letter yesterday about a raise, but it was much less than we had previously agreed on... well... I dug around and found an old email with the original agreement all laid out, and by the time I came into work this morning, I had my original agreement back. Woohoo! At the end of the day, it won't turn out to be a huge increase in my paychecks at all, but even a little extra is nice, especially with the wedding around the corner! I'm very proud that I was persistent enough last year to negotiate the raise I did, and equally proud that I made sure they followed through and kept their word. Go me.

A Dolla Makes Me Holla!!!!

Ok, other than that... yesterday (Tuesday) was incredibly frustrating on the whole, but I was very proud of myself for not running for a Diet Coke or giant cookie. But alas, I was 0.4 pounds heavier this morning. I know that's not a big deal, but as it's 5:11pm and I'm still thinking about it... it clearly is somewhat of a big deal to me. I knew weighing every day was a bad idea, but I will keep doing it and sticking to Seetha's plan. Hopefully the results will give her more knowledge and help guide me even better. Job #1's opening night (where I'll dress up) is a week from tomorrow, and I'm going to try on wedding dresses two days after that, so I canNOT give up now. I've been feeling a little better about myself and I'd like go into wedding dress shopping with that feeling still.

Ok friends, time to dash home, try to do a little yoga, make dinner, and then head to meditation class. It does feel funny to rush rush rush just so I can go meditate, but hey, I've got a lot to do!

Seven Years Ago...

It's September 16th, which means on this date 7 years ago, Andy and I met for the first time. :-) There was a joint birthday party for some fellow Eastman School of Music Students that night. I was drinking Diet Coke, we started talking and quickly learned that his family loved Diet Coke just like my family, and the rest was history! Well not really, we were just friends for awhile, couldn't really tell you the date we actually started dating, but I do know the day we met, so there's the story. And since it's the 16th, it also means the wedding countdown has progressed - now only 11 months until the big day!

Alright, time for my weekend update. It might be a little long, sorry!

After Job #1 on Friday I went to what is becoming my "regular" yoga class with Kristin (her friend Laura came as well). The class was PACKED. Everything was going well until towards the end... I started feeling shaky, cold, sweating a lot... I don't get that feeling too often, but whenever I do it's like an immediate signal is sent to my brain: NEED SUGAR NOW. Thankfully Kristin had her card on her and was able to come to my rescue in the club's cafe after class. Thank you Kristin!!!

Babs, Kristin, and Laura

Friday night was low key and fun - Sarah came over and we made dinner and hung out while watching Say Yes to the Dress. Woohoo! I was also excited to show Sarah the invitations I decided on (Andy approved them too). My mom was actually the one to find them... I showed her some Vera Wang invitations I found that I liked but were waaaay out of our price range. She did some research and found some I liked even more that we could make ourselves. Now she's ordered all of the parts so there will be an invitation-making party in my future. I actually think putting them together will be really fun!

Saturday began early with..... A RUN!!!!!!!! RunnerBabs is back!!! (sort of). Alyssa actually joined me (easy since we live so close now) and we ran around randomly for about 30 minutes. I mapped it out later and we did 2.7 miles or so. A far cry from the distances I was running last year, but after having had knee surgery, I'd say I'm doing ok. I actually didn't have any knee pain while running, but the rest of the day was pretty bad... lots and lots of knee pain. :-( UGH. After my morning run I worked Job #2 (fairly frustrating shift), went to Trader Joe's and Bed Bath & Beyond, then hung out with Andy. We grilled dinner and watched the first episode of "Orange is the New Black."

While at Bed Bath & Beyond I found some curtains on sale. Room reveal!

Living Room

 Sunday was also a busy day. I started with an early morning yoga class with Lisa. It was so hard! Honestly there were parts where I just sat on my mat while I watched other people do handstands or crazy knee bending poses, but that's ok - I'm still glad I went. After class I swung by to pick up Andy and then we headed to Lisa's to meet Boo, Lisa's new kitty cat!

Andy and Boo

Boo playing with a ribbon

Boo is so tiny and cute!

Once we had our fill of Boo, the three of us headed to the farmer's market. Lisa and I tried ground cherries...

Tastes like a very sweet tomato

Then I got a zucchini the size of an infant human.

Bambini Zucchini!

The market was really good - not only did Andy and I get some vegetables (pretty standard)... we also got Strawberry Rhubarb jam (I can't eat the sugar free kind anymore) and sausage! Sadly we were at the market longer than I thought we would be, which meant I missed Zumba. At least I had already done yoga!

Now onto the nutritional update. On Sunday afternoon I met with Seetha again. I was very proud that I was able to tell her I stuck to all of her guidelines. In case you've forgotten that means I had gone 15 days without starch, and 8 days without Diet Coke or other fake sugars. It also means I've switched to full fat dairy products (that I have not been eating past 4pm) and doing yoga three times a week. Check check check!!! Now that I've more or less "flushed out" my system of starch, Seetha said we will begin slowly reintroducing foods into my diet. Here's the plan for this week:

1) Reintroduce beans into my diet. I'm excited because now I can make chili! I am also allowed to have corn and potatoes, but only before 4pm. At first I got excited because popcorn is also allowed, but I always have a Diet Coke when I have popcorn, so I can't imagine it being the same now. :-/ The idea behind slowly reintroducing starch is to try to determine which kind of starch is my "trigger" for binge eating. I know it's cookies and other sweets, but she said there's probably a food that's even more basic that's leading me to want those things. So... I guess we'll find out. I have a feeling I'll be pretty safe with beans, corn, and potatoes.

2) Weigh daily. She wants to see if any foods trigger inflammation, and apparently she said weight is an indicator of that. This will be tough! I honestly think constant feedback from the scale is my trigger, but I told her that, so we're trying it for a week and seeing what happens. If it really is too hard for me, she said we'll find a different path.

3) Meditate more. I've honestly only gone to the two Wednesday night classes so far, but since our meeting I have gone to iTunes, as instructed, and downloaded some "mindful meditation" tracks. I PROMISE I will start today and make a point to listen to them every day.

4) I'm also allowed to have dairy past 4pm again, but she said to really think about whether or not I really wanted it when it got to be after that time of day. I realized when I had to give it up at night how reliant I was on ice cream before bed. Now I think I'll try to limit that to a weekend treat.

I still am not sure why I just randomly decided to trust Seetha and go along with everything she's said, but I'm sure glad I have. I have not measured or weighed food once since meeting with her. I also haven't binged (amazing). And major bonus, I am actually losing weight!

Ok back to Sunday's recap. Andy and I worked on unpacking (very briefly) after my meeting with Seetha, then butchered our bambini zucchini to make pizza!

Giant zucchini slices = starch-free crust

Finally the weekend ended with the Miss America Pageant. Woohoo! Even though some of them are hard to sit through, I like watching the contestants compete in the talent competition a lot. I give a lot of credit to Miss Florida for competing with a torn ACL, and I especially liked her bedazzled knee brace. :-)

All in all another good weekend. I'm really enjoying my Seetha weekends... typically I'd pig out on a weekend and spend the good part of it hating myself. This is working much better!!

BuddhaBabs

Alright I'll be honest, I haven't been feeling all too "zen" lately, but I did go to meditation class on Wednesday, so I think I have enough credit to title this entry BuddhaBabs. Let's catch up...

Tuesday night I worked at Job #2. In the middle of my shift we had our monthly front desk meeting. While I really enjoyed the chance to sit down for awhile during my shift, I did not enjoy seeing everyone else eat pizza. Granted, I actually liked the dinner I packed, but it was most certainly not pizza. During the meeting we played a game... which my team won (woohoo!), and our prize was chocolate covered pretzels covered in mini M&M's. Not Seetha approved. So things were fine, but I was feeling a little bit irritated...

Wednesday was Job #1... I can't even remember what happened, but I do recall feeling incredibly cranky in the afternoon when I couldn't have my Diet Coke. My only saving grace that day was Andy agreeing to go to meditation with me (I wouldn't have gone alone). The class was a lot more enjoyable this time. We started with singing the songs (still like that part), then had a seated meditation (I'm going to guess it was about 20-25 minutes)... this time my mind was a lot calmer, and when I started to think of different things, I'd concentrate not on my breath (because I didn't want to pass out again) but instead I started at the top of my head and worked down to my toes trying to relax every muscle in my body. It worked well! Not sure if that's a "real" technique or not, but it worked for me.

After the seated meditation and a 10 minute break, we watched a streamed video of Anam Thubten - a buddhist teacher. I really liked watching the video... he had a great smile!

Anam Thubten

His main message was that we cannot transcend our biology, and trying to do so is inflicting violence upon yourself. It was a good message for me - I need to try to stop fighting my body so much... I know it creates internal violence for myself. And of course, hopefully by being more at peace with my current physical form will help me to lead a healthier life (and then that physical form will change!). He also talked about how:
- to be human is to live a life of 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows... you have to have both
- you should not try to transcend the ordinariness of daily tasks, because those are part of being human

All in all good messages, and I went home feeling less angry that I couldn't have a Diet Coke or eat ice cream (since I'm not having dairy after 4pm). What I DID have was a healthy dose of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo!!!" Mama June and Sugar Bear tied the knot, and I loved every second of it.

Here comes the bride!

My favorite part of their wedding was when they cut the cake. Instead of feeding Sugar Bear, Mama June just started feeding herself! I couldn't stop laughing.

On to Thursday. Thursday was HARD. Job #1 was really busy and full of annoying people, including an old lady volunteer who kept farting in my office!!! Not to mention we had a birthday cake celebration for two people in the office, so I had to stand and watch everyone eat cake... :( It looked so good. Then I couldn't have a Diet Coke... more sadness/anger/frustration. Then I had to go work Job #2... more frustration - it was actually fine while I was there, but I just didn't want to have to go in. After I finished at the front desk I went to Sarah's Zumba class, but struggled because I wasn't feeling very energetic and my stomach hurt (guess it's a bad idea to eat beef jerky and a banana right before class). When I got home I had a good talk with Andy. He encouraged me to keep going with Seetha's plan. I needed the encouragement for sure.

And now today is Friday. Right now I'm eating sugar snap peas instead of the donuts that are in our office kitchen. I seriously feel like I'm trapped in a world of temptation sometimes, this week being worse than most. However I just got a text from Seetha and we will be meeting again on Sunday. I know I will be able to stick to her plan until I see her again and learn the next steps of my journey.

In the meantime I need to focus on other things besides how much I want a Diet Coke. I've realized I'm getting behind on my wedding planning tasks, so that will be something to work on... and also unpacking (much less fun).

Diet Coke Has Gone to the Dark Side

Happy Tuesday everyone.

I'm on day three of no Diet Coke, no fake sugar, no sugar free or diet foods, and no dairy after 4pm. On the whole I feel fine... not really different honestly, although slightly cranky when I remember I can't have a Diet Coke. Oh how I miss you Diet Coke...

In an attempt to make drinking things that aren't Diet Coke more fun, I got myself one of these...

Lemon Water

This handy dandy drink holder has a space in the middle to put things...lemons, cucumbers, mint, etc... which flavors your water naturally. The lemon water is actually quite refreshing! (But it is still not Diet Coke)

So what else has been going on...

Yesterday started with a training session with Vinny, Sarah, and Anna. I was still sore from all of my yoga activities so it seemed hard! I'll just go ahead and say it again - I love starting my week off with training. :-)

Then it was time for Job #1 - my tasks were fine, but the surrounding personalities were a challenge... guess the office had a case of the Monday's or something. When I drove home from work, I was greeted by our new neighbor.

There are no words

I love the lei he is wearing...makes him much more festive looking (he was still there this morning too).

Last night I was on my own for dinner, and decided to try my hand at the grill. I grilled up a Seetha-approved meal and was pretty proud of myself.

Curry Chicken and Veggies

Obviously I didn't eat all of that chicken... that would NOT be Seetha approved.

This morning I woke up thanks to a thunderstorm and decided to start my day off with some yoga, which I did in our sun porch with the door propped open so I could see the storm (I'm turning into such a hippy). I found two 9 minute videos on youtube that focused on stretching for beginners. Not the most amazing yoga practice, but fit the bill considering I woke up sore from training.

And now I'm at Job #1... in a bit I'll be at Job #2. Typical Tuesday, except that it's 90 something degrees outside, which is not so typical for this time of year.

Hope you're all having a good day!

Namaste

Lots of activity on the zen front!

The weekend started after work with a Friday yoga class - Kristin and Lisa came making it all the more fun!

Kristin, Babs, and Lisa

The class seemed especially hard at points. Let's just say the three of us enjoyed a few child's poses. Who did not enjoy child's pose? Annoying yoga dude next to me. While everyone else would be following the teacher, he'd just do a headstand. Show off. And when he wasn't doing that, he'd be checking his iPhone. Really?? I found him to be very irritating.

The rest of my Friday night was spent at the grocery store, and then on the couch, in my pajamas, watching Say Yes to the Dress. Perfection.

Saturday was suuuuuper busy. First I had to work Job #2. During my break, I met with Seetha (my nutritional guru). I told her I didn't have starch for the entire week, and she said I was a tough cookie! That made me feel good. :-) I guess it's a good thing I'm a tough cookie, because things are getting even harder. In addition to foregoing starch I am now also supposed to...

1) Switch to full fat dairy products (no more sugar free puddings or fat free yogurts), the idea being that with the real stuff I'll be more satisfied with less since it is richer, and also won't be putting as many chemicals in my body (or whatever hocus pocus they do to modify food to make it less caloric).

2) Give up fake sugar. No more fake sugar in my coffee, in my oatmeal (except I'm still not allowed to eat starch), in any food made with it (lots of diet processed stuff it turns out), and..... the ultimate.... Diet Coke. I will not lie when I say I am genuinely sad to not drink Diet Coke. But so far I haven't had one since Saturday afternoon. :-( I MISS YOU DIET COKE!!!!

3) No dairy after 4pm. I don't know why, but this means I can't have (full fat) ice cream before bed, and that makes me sad too.

But guys, I'm really going to stick to it, because I do feel good.

My new sweeteners

After Job #2, I went to the house of a lady from Job #1 - in cleaning out her house, she found some things she thought I might like for our new place (mostly plastic bins). After talking with her and her daughter for about an hour, I left, ran a few errands, and then went to Sarah's house for dinner with her, Jon, and her parents! I always love spending time with Sarah and her family. And it doesn't hurt when dinner consists of the best pulled pork I've ever had. :-)

Sunday was a whirlwind of activity. I checked out the farmer's market in the morning, ran a few errands, then hit up Sarah's Zumba class. I'm so happy that my knee is good enough to let me go back to Zumba. Then it was home for a quick shower, and back to the club for a reggae-themed pool-side yoga party!

Kristin, Anna, Lisa, and Rose all did the "Trenchtown" Yoga class as well, which meant we had a lot of fun. And best of all, the weather was PERFECT. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

Getting Settled - by the time we started there were 150 people!

The view from my mat

It was definitely interesting to do yoga so close to your neighbor. My head actually hit Kristin's bum at one point. Oops! After a very fun class, we hung out by the pool for a little bit, just because the weather was so nice.

Kristin and Babs

Then Anna gave me her hat so it was time for a photo shoot.

Ooo la la!

Before we left we did one last photo shoot in front of the healthy sign...showing off some of the moves we had just done in class.

Tree Pose

Standing Split (Anna's not feeling this one)

Kristin and I were the only forward fold-ers

Andy also came back to town on Sunday. The rest of the night was spent grilling dinner and not eating ice cream before bed (I had half a peach and some pineapple instead... they would have tasted better with ice cream). I'll admit I didn't get much done around the house at all, but I think trading house productivity for a weekend of zen fun is a good trade.

Namaste!

Day of S's

My Thursday started off Super early - had to take Andy to the airport, who is now in St. Louis. Instead of going back to bed for an hour I decided to make use of my early morning and join Sarah on her long run. Sarah is training for her first marathon, and Thursday morning she did her 15 mile long run - GO SARAH!!! Obviously I cannot keep up with her on foot since she is a cheetah, so I hopped on my bike and kept her company for 5 of her miles.

Not my most flattering look

13 down, 2 to go!!

Then it was off to Job #1, which was fine.... relatively uneventful. Home for a quick dinner (still going strong with no starch for 5 whole days now!). Then to the club for Sarah's Zumba class. Sarah in the morning and at night - my day was a Sarah Sandwich!!!

Of course no Sarah Sandwich is complete without a Side of Steltenpohl Sisters. :-) I drove over to Lisa's (with a quick stop on the way to get a giant Spider out of my car that was crawling across my windshield...yes...I was screaming...) and we had a good time just hanging out and talking. Lisa also blew my mind when she presented me with this diet pepsi...

Check out that Straw!!!

I was So Sleepy by the time I got home, but still managed to stay up long enough to watch an episode of "Four Weddings." Then it was time for bed. I slept like a rock!!!

Not too much going on today - Job #1, yoga w/Kristin, Anna, and Lisa, and then probably a mix of unpacking/cleaning/watching "Say Yes to the Dress." Sounds like a pretty good night actually!

Happy Half Birthday

That's right! September 4th... my half birthday! Which also means that it is Rebecca's REAL birthday. Happy Birthday Rebecca!!!!!!!

So how did I spend my day?

I started off bright and early going to "Core and Conditioning" class with Anna. I'm so glad she went too - we did a lot of stuff with partners and I wouldn't have liked the class nearly as much if I were partnered with a stranger. Although it wasn't the hardest workout in the world, I was glad I went because I never do body weight exercises on my own (pretty much what we did the entire class).

After the gym it was time for work... that went by relatively quickly and wasn't too painful... one of my two meetings was cancelled... score!

I flew out of work to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I saw a painting there last week that I really liked and haven't stopped thinking about it. I decided to treat myself to it as a half birthday present to myself. Stay tuned for a picture... Andy liked it too so it will be going up in the living room - I will take a picture once it's on the wall.

With the painting purchased I made a quick stop home to eat dinner and change clothes. Note on food: I've gone 4 days now following Seetha's plan. :-) Sometimes are harder than others, but on the whole I'm feeling pretty good. Go me!

Part of Seetha's plan was to meditate, which leads me to the best story of my day. At 7pm, Anna, Lisa, and I met to attend our first meditation class together. Since we were brand new to meditation, they were very nice and talked a little about the purpose of meditating and gave us some tips for our first time. The tip was when you notice your thoughts wandering, try to bring your attention in and focus on your breath... keep that in mind.

Namaste

Ok, so here's how meditation class went...

First we did two "group chants" - those were basically singing songs, and I really liked that part. Definitely my favorite part of the class. Next we sat in silence (in a room full of strangers) with our eyes closed for 25 minutes. She warned us that being alone with our thoughts for that long could be startling. I guess I'm just not that deep of a thinker. This is basically what my flow of thoughts looked like:

- I like those songs we just sang. I should sing them in my head a bunch so I don't forget them. (which I did...and of course now I've forgotten them)
- I shouldn't be singing the songs, I should focus on my breathing. (start paying attention to my breathing)
- Dear God I'm going to pass out (I was breathing too much). What if I fall over in my chair because I pass out and disrupt class?
- Ok don't focus on breathing... wait... now I can't breathe normally!!!
- Girl you look better with the lights off, better with the lights off ooooo ooooo (yes, I started singing this song in my head)
- uh oh.... I feel a rumble below... I hope I can hold it in....
- hey shawty, hope you don't take this the wrong way, cause you look better with the lights off
- crap my eyes are watering... if someone looks they'll think I was thinking something really dark and that I was crying, when really I'm just singing songs
- you're a dime, so beautiful, top of the line, so unusual, words can't define... heeey
- crap... I really might fart... stupid Calm drink!!
- Who even sings that song anyway? Who cares, I like it.
- Girl you look better with the lights off, better with the lights off oooo ooooo
*bell rings signaling the end of 25 minutes*

Then it was time for a 10 minute walking meditation where everyone got up (in silence) and started walking very slow laps around a table (in silence). Onto those thoughts...

- Wow this lady in front of Anna is walking way too slow
- Anna has nice legs (I was behind her and basically staring at her heels the entire 10 minutes to make sure I wouldn't walk too fast and run into her)
- I'm so happy your mine...top of the line.... words can't define... (yep, still singing it)
- This is nice carpet
- I can't wait to write a blog post about this
- Girl you look better with the lights off oooo ooooo
*bell rings signaling the end of 10 minutes*

Now at this point we were supposed to go back and sit in our chairs in silence for another 25 minutes, but Lisa wasn't feeling it, so we put on our shoes and left. They told us at the beginning we didn't have to stay for the whole thing... I think they recognized that was a lot for a first timer to go through. So... we got frozen yogurt instead. :-) Andy was able to join us for that part too.

They're doing creepy poses again!!!

I caught on...

All in all, a good (althought slightly weird) half birthday. And here's this in case you are unfamiliar with the song that I realized I am actually not all too familiar with myself (I only seem to know about 4 lines worth of lyrics lol).