Hello Level 6!



Source: fitsugar.com

Well, hello Level 6 of Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis and thank you VERY much for properly kicking my butt from the get-go!  Seriously, the warm-up and arms are great, even the arms with weights and the isolations are a breeze.....then we get to the abs where we have more parts moving around at the same time and holy heck, the leg lifts!  WOW...

Consider myself schooled.

Tracy Anderson - you rock my world and I only hope that all of this hard work, sweat, and profanity, gives me a rock-hard butt and thighs!  :)

Happy Thursday everyone!  Hope you are all having a great week and all had a fabulous 4th of July!!

Day 3 of Level 6 is tomorrow.......going to go to bed early again to try and prepare myself.  Wish me luck!

Crazy Bikram Yoga Rituals

There are so many pros to working out at home, as I'm discovering.  One of these, as my post's title suggests, is not having to do/deal with all of my crazy Bikram Yoga rituals that I think most Bikram yogis abide by.  They are numerous (feel free to add to my list!) and will sound crazy.....if interested, keep reading:

1. Not eating anything at LEAST 2 hours prior to class
2. Not drinking any more water at least 1 hour prior to class
3. Never, not in a million years, use ANY kind of lotion as it will make you super slippery in class once you start sweating buckets
4. Having to find an ice source (to keep your water cold throughout class) if you're going to class from work (luckily we had an ice machine) otherwise I'd have to stop at Starbucks before class
5. Having to Sherpa around bags full of crap and clothes to change into OH and a change of shoes too because Lord knows you wouldn't want to leave class in your work shoes
6. Sourcing and carrying around grocery bags with you to take your nasty, sweaty clothes home in
7. Finding all kinds of crazy water additives to help sustain your (daily) practice
8. Getting to class at least 30 minutes before it started so you can snag "your spot"
9. Having a favorite water bottle for class and freaking out if you forgot it at home
10. ???  I know I'm missing some.....this is all I can think of right now

I guess most of the "rituals" that I miss the least are the time-consuming ones....it's SO nice to wake up, throw on your workout clothes and shoes, walk downstairs, stretch, and do your workout and be done for the day.   Speaking of which, I'm running behind today with my Tracy Anderson workout, so off to the downstairs I go!  :)

This Does Not Make Me Happy

For those of you that don't actually "know" me, I am very interested in astrology, horoscopes, palm reading, etc.  Well, a few months ago, my acupuncturist and I were talking about all sorts of different things, one of them about retrogrades and astrology.  She gave me the name of a lady, Joni Patry, to look up that made very spot-on predictions but follows Vedic Astrology (Eastern.)
So month to month I get notifications of her updated predictions and my personal astrological prediction for the upcoming month.  Can I just say how NOT pleased I was to read July 2011's prediction for me?  For the record, in Western Astrology, I am a Libra, but in Vedic, I am a Cancer, and you can figure this all out for free on her website using her calculator tools but you must know the time at which you were born.  So, I look up Cancer for July 2011 and read the update below:

"Cancer July 2011
Friendships End

Your friends are unstable and can cause a scene. A friend will disappoint and leave your life. It is time to find friends that support you."

That's it.  That's all.  Nothing more, no elaboration.  Wow.  Ugh!  All of my previous updates were positive and sometimes mysterious and kept me on a good page.  This one just turns me off.  I feel like I've been dealing with friend drama since I can remember.  Girl friends used to get mad at me in middle school for inviting the new kids to join our group.  I have had some truly amazing friendships that all of a sudden just fall apart and I'm not quite sure why.  There have been more recent ones that have gone kaput but I *do* know why and they have made sense to me, one, which was resolved years later and now we are close again after talking about what happaned and another one which I truly, truly miss and I need to send her a message or something soon, but otherwise, I haven't had any regrets in the losing friends department.

I agree that we should all have friends in our life that are supportive and that don't disappoint us but it also depends on our expectations of that friend, doesn't it?  I guess I naturally expect in return the friendship, time, and devotion that I put into a friend relationship and if I don't get that in return, I begin questioning it and why am I bending over backwards for someone that doesn't make time for me?  I'm not saying this is right but I'm saying this is naturally what I trend towards.....

The whole set of predictions for July 2011 and on was kind of crazy anyhow so to read this on top of all of that just kind of freaked me out.  I don't think I have any friends that will disappoint me but who knows?  Yuck.  I'm going to try and not think about it and let July 2011 be what it will and hope for the best!  :)

Almost Halfway Through My Metamorphosis Journey!

Metamorphosis
Source: yourdictionary.com

When you hear the word metamorphosis, the first thing a person usually thinks of is a butterly, or rather, a caterpillar turning into a beautiful butterfly.

This morning I completed Day 44 of my Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis program.  After tomorrow morning's workout, I will be halfway through my original 90-day journey and then will move on to Continuity.

Time flies.  I have enjoyed each and every day of my metamorphosis and am ever SO thankful to have found Tracy Anderson and the support of her online community.  I've never felt better and I am on my way to turning into that butterfly.  Not that I've ever thought I'm ugly or needed a transformation but it was just about time to find something that works for me and gives me the results I've been wanting for all of my hard work, effort, and time invested.

Level 5, you are hard, but I'm keeping up with you, Tracy!  The abs are pretty dang difficult but they will only get me results.  I am looking forward to a much deserved massage tonight and getting my butt kicked again in the morning!  Amazing results, you are mine!  Metamorphosis, you will be mine!  :)  Happy Tuesday, everyone!

When did I become so practical?!

Today, after a very nice homemade/brought lunch with a good friend, we stopped in a store in my building that sells high-end apparel and accessories for women and men.  Well, they have a HUGE sale going on and the shoe style to the left (in the color of the ones below) were 50% off! 

Well, normally 50% off is a GREAT deal and I guess in the grand scheme of designer things, this IS a great deal.  They just HAD to be in my size and yes, folks, they are those beautiful italian-made shoes with the pretty red bottoms.....Christian Louboutins.

I just couldn't do it.  I started thinking of all of the things I could buy with that money so I grabbed a catalog, thanked the sales ladies, and made a b-line for my office.  When I got back to work I just couldn't stop thinking of these shoes.  They were gorgeous.  They felt amazing on my feet.  Why shouldn't I buy them??  I mean, don't my feet deserve them?!  I can wear them with practically anything and yes, I deserve them!  But my mind kept going back to the dollar signs.  It was just TOO much.  That's like 3 weeks worth of food for my Tracy Anderson Method food plan......

And then I thought to myself, damn......since when did I become so freaking practical??!!!

Maybe I will hold off until I complete my 90 day program.  Maybe I will make these shoes (or another pair on sale if these are gone which they likely will be) my reward to myself for having completed 90 days of the Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis Method.  That sounds like a good idea.  I've always wanted a pair....and the ones I bought on eBay don't count!  :)

Bye-Bye Level 4!

A Kiwi-Tini
Source: Great Taste Magazine

Yesterday morning I completed Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis day/workout #40.  Phew!  Did I sweat buckets yesterday morning!  I can't tell you how happy I am to have finished level 4.  The free arms/warm-up, arms w/weights, abs, and isolations worked you but weren't HARD.  Now, the leg lifts.......all 200 sets on EACH LEG (some having two movements per 1 set, ugh!!) were another story.  Usually the first side would be "easy," but the minute I moved on to the second side (which I would alternate each morning), I would be DYING and struggling to make it through all of the reps but darn it, I would just pause that DVD and finish them out until I did ALL of them.  BAM!  Take that, Tracy Anderson!  ;)

With day 40 comes new measurements and weigh-in.  Again, I am happy to report that I am down a total of 20 pounds (2 more since my official 30-day weigh-in) and I lost another half-inch from my hips!  :)  These results have just been amazing and I start level 5 today.  Since I have an EARLY morning and LONG meeting scheduled at work I have to start tonight after work but it's okay, I'll get it done.  Also, had an AMAZING Portland Art Museum Young Patrons Society event last night that centered around "The Allure of the Automobile."  We had a FABULOUS turnout thanks to my fellow organizing committee members and the Museum's partners at the Oregon Historical Society.....WOW.  I could have done without the Kiwi-tini (although delicious), it had this green sugared rim that turned my tongue, and inside of my lips GREEN.  LOL

Here's looking forward to level 5 of Tracy Anderson's Metamorphosis Method tonight!  SO excited and excited for my next measurement/weigh-in on Day 50!!!  :)

Back in Balance

Well, boy, am I glad that last week (AKA the crap week from HELL) is over.  It seems that everything reset and most all was better by Saturday and that this week was to bring forth realizations and answers to my recent problems.  Things are back in balance and as a Libra, I can appreciate that.

The work-problem situation has been resolved and the systems are now set up to help all of us do our jobs as it should have been in the first place.

Called first thing Monday morning right at 7am when they opened to the Literati help line.  They actually tried to help me first by troubleshooting but when nothing worked she got my name and address to ship me a box/label to send the broken one in and they'll send a new one my way once received.  I'm happy about that.  Just bummed that my reading has been set back a bit.

Also on Monday, I posted a question to the Blogger's help page and got an answer pretty quickly and voila!  My blog layout is fixed.  Turns out there was something in the code from one of my posts last week that was messing everything up.  Thank you to the person that helped me!  Also, through that research, I found an amazing new link to Free Blogger Templates for your Blog.  And that is what you are seeing now - VERY happy with the new template!  :)

All seems right in the world (knock on wood) and looking forward to tomorrow, Day 40 on the Tracy Anderson Method Metamorphosis!!  Another check-in with weight and measurements.......I can definitely feel the difference and it's always good to be reassured by actual numbers!