Tired

I know I have a good life. I know this, but dear God, I am SO tired of feeling taken advantage of. It never seems to end and call me a complainer but I don't feel like this is a complaint; it's my life struggle (we all have them) to deal with. Whether it's constantly bending over backwards for someone and never getting anything in return, or opening up to someone emotionally and never even knowing things about them until it's too late, being super generous and never seeing anything in any form being given back not even time or energy, or giving an inch and them taking a mile, it seems this is my lot in life.

Can I change it? I hope so. I'm growing so tired of it....what to do? I just want things to be good, fair, and peaceful. Is that too much to ask?? ;)

On a different note, it's crazy how you can connect with a character so much it's eerie. Watching "Black Swan" recently, I connected so much with Natalie Portman's character as she faces struggles and her dealings with her mother. Maybe it's the living at home for so long and being so over-protected and naive. But wow, I think if I had stayed in that environment for much longer maybe I would have ended up as poor Nina. Hopefully not and I've made it thus far but man, the beginning of the movie reminded me SO much of me at 18, 19, 20. Super naive. Ugh. But it sure did make me miss ballet and all of the guts and glory that go into it!! Loved Black Swan!!! :)

Falling off the wagon...

The best part about falling off the wagon is getting back on, right?

I've lost my way after a fun trip to Sunriver, having too much fun for my birthday, and then getting super, super sick. Ugh. It happens and I refuse to beat myself up over it. I am up this morning, FINALLY feeling better from that dreadful cold, and am determined to get up and get moving and restarting my Tracy Anderson Continuity DVD's. Now that the congestion is finally just about almost 100% gone, I feel I can safely restart my program, so here we go! Looking forward to logging those burned calories!! :)

Leap of Faith - Inspirations

Just a few things that have recently inspired me.......the list will continue....

1.  My beautiful friend, Juliet, who said "bye-bye" to the corporate world and is following her true love and inspiration as a yoga instructor...you can take her yoga classes HERE.
2.  All of the amazingly talented and young dancers on So You Think You Can Dance (one of my top fave shows - don't laugh!).....when I watch that show, I come to tears nearly every performance night.  Their grace and talent astound me year after year...
3.  All of my fellow Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis ladies....I have added quite a few of their blogs to my blog list to the right and they are just SO inspirational.  We all come from different backgrounds/experience so to be doing this together and being able to help support each other through an online media helps tremendously!
4.  Those who follow their dreams.  I kick myself all the time for not following mine when I was young and had so many possibilities (no regrets though!) but also know that it's NEVER TOO LATE and when I hear about friends my age who make it possible, it makes me hopeful.
5.  All of my beautiful and talented friends who are so caring and thoughtful.  I love you.

Happy July 2011.  Wish it was sunny here in Portland but alas, it's Portland and it's still raining.  ARGH!!  ;)  xoxo

Day 50 - Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis - Results!

Source: www.aplacetolovedogs.com

I completely forgot to post my Day 50 results! I am now going on Day 56 so am a little behind on posting but things are still going well!

Although by Day 50 I hadn't lost any more weight, I could definitely still feel a difference in the way my clothes were fitting and the way my body looked, which is good!

It turns out I lost another .25" from my hips (hooray!  any little bit counts!!) and another 1/2" from each thigh!!  Seriously!!  :)

I am continuing to see the results and they are great.  I bought a new pair of works pants a couple of weeks ago and they are already getting loose on me, what the heck?!  I am enjoying this feeling and am keeping on.  Level 6 of TAM (Tracy Anderson Method) is definitely kicking my butt but I'm sticking to it.  Other than taking an unscheduled rest day the other day, I'm a keeping on.......only four more days of Level 6!  I can do it and then I'll get to see what Level 7 has in store for me....YIKES!

Hope everyone is doing well....over and out for now!  :)

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!  :)