Today I learned...

Today I learned ... that I am too hard on myself; that people have more faith in me than I do; and that we can all agree that I don't dress for the job I have.

I took a class today on managing interpersonal relationships and it was kind of common sense and kind of eye opening.

The big revelations? My overall social style is an amiable style. Ok. I buy that. The biggest struggle for me as an amiable person? Confrontation and conflict. No shit! The action I need to take? Initiate, initiate, initiate. Not too shocking. My focus is on personal security? Duh!!

What was shocking was the difference between how I see myself and how others see me. My nine respondents all graded me higher on my skills, competencies and feedback skills than I did. I was pleasantly surprised to see that because the age difference and my relatively low time at the bank make me feel like I have so much more to prove.

I'm going to work to apply those lessons to my life as a whole. I need to trust myself more and not be afraid to rock the boat. I need to be willing to ask for what I deserve and I need to stand up for myself more.

I'm still fighting to get back on track after all my birthday eating and sweets devouring. It's so much easier to abstain when time has passed. Tomorrow is another full day of training and my goal is to not snack between meals and eat exactly what I have planned.  

Being in training and not loving the fridge in the facility I am going to walk down to the local restaurant and get me a lunch box - pimento cheese sandwich, pretzels, dessert square - and a salad of some kind. Breakfast is fruit and a bagel with cream cheese and a latte, because coffee. Dinner is up in the air because I need to go grocery shopping and so we will likely go out to dinner. 

I'm trying to plan the crap out of next week. Breakfasts will be simple fruit, granola and coffee. Lunch is so hard for me because I just can't do sandwiches. I have chicken sausages and will likely do a few days of a sausage with peppers and onions and I may make a stew or siup for the other days this week. Dinner will be a standard meat, carb, protein combination of some kind.

I'm also very seriously considering another round of no bread at all. I've gotten back in to the habit of mindless nomming on bread, rolls, biscuits at meals. I think it's time for a break from my loves... And maybe a sad goodbye to white potatoes as well.

I'm getting more in to sweet potatoes and butternut squash in place of my love the white potato but I'm scared to say goodbye to both.  I did that once before and the fiancée wanted to tie me down and force a biscuit down my throat. I was not a nice person sans bread and potatoes. Not nice at all. I still apologize for that month and a half. 

I'm at a plateau right now, and given that I ate cheesecake, fried cheesecake, brownie sundaes and all the potatoes and martinis I wanted over the last week I'm ok with that.

So ... My goals for year 30 - post a total of 150 blog posts before October 20, 2013. So you'll be hearing from me a lot starting with the NHBPM event starting November 1st. I'm excited about it looking at the prompts. I hope you'll come around and share in the health chat with me! 

Celebrating Dirty Thirty

Well, it happened. I turned 30!

After an incredibly hard week at work, I started my birthday weekend off with Mrs. Fatass doing a 30 minute Zumba Sentao demo at 12:15. It went so well! We had done our first demo on Thursday night and I think each time we do it, it gets better and easier to do (in terms of teaching!)!  I went back to work, got as much done as possible and left at 4:45 to go get my eyebrows tamed before my dinner party.

We went out to a local place called Jac's for dinner. It was DELICIOUS! 

I had reserved the private dining room for the evening and as we were being walked to the room the hostess was giggling - people had been by already. Sue and a coworker, Ann had been by to drop off flowers for me. Sue's was festooned with the "It's My Fucking Birthday" button attached to the vase. I giggled like mad.

Dinner was so good. First there was spinach artichoke dip with pita bread and warm fresh bread with a sweet butter. My meal. Chicken breast, broccolini, and garlic mashed potatoes in a smoked Gouda cream sauce. My birthday cake? Caramel, banana fried cheesecake with vanilla ice cream and caramel and chocolate drizzle. Dead! 

Italian Wedding Cake Martini

Also a Glo-Toni and an Italian Wedding Cake martini. So awesome. So tasty. So tipsy.

Glo-Tini

The party moved to a local bar, O'Cools, where we had some more drinks, shared nachos and just hung out. I fell in love with the new chairs on the patio. They're perfect for Sentao. Sadly, they run like $500 for 14 of them. Ouch!

I came home and went to bed right around midnight. It was a very restful sleep.

Saturday, my birthday started off by being bombarded with texts, calls and Facebook messages from friends and family. I couldn't stop smiling. 

I hustled over to the studio to do 30 minutes of Zumba with Sarah and the crew there. I was welcomed by a giant birthday card, gifts from students, a board that they were fastening stars with positive messages on to. I cried a little. So much love! 

Those 30 minutes were full of joy and glee and a ton of sweat. I ran out to teach over at the YMCA. I was greeted by cards and a pretty pink tiara to wear. The tiara actually stayed on for 99.9% of class. Resilient thing!

Note the Tiara. And the pink socks to match.

60 minutes of more sweat to my favorite songs followed.  The smile couldn't have been removed from my face with a jackhammer!

Then came my spoiling myself. Lunch at El Tap with Marsh, Matt, Chip, Sarah and Maryana. Then off to Sacred Flame to get my new tattoo. A quick run to Raleigh followed where I bought my new, fancy iPad!

Here's the tattoo.  I posted from the iPad.

He's a good boy. I got the new iPad, with 64gig of storage in black and blue Smart Cover. I don't like the cover. I can't plug my headphones in flush against it. Fail.

We ate dinner at a great Irish pub in Raleigh where I nommed pub chips, Shepard's Pie with arugula salad and a brownie salad. So sinful!

I was up till almost 1am playing with my iPad. It's so nice!  I think the iPad's name is Gizmo.  Like from Gremlins.

Today was another day of crazy Zumba. Sentao demo, Zumbatomic and a 75 minute Zumba class. 3 hours total. I am so sore. I love it though!!! I know I couldn't have done all of that in one day when I was 25.  Maybe not even when I was 28! Progress!

I am very pleased with turning 30. I'm feeling healthy, strong, loved and like I'm finally finding my place in this world. 

Currently, I'm working on a new goals list. 30 things I want to accomplish in the next year. Personal, fitness, financial and general goals to give me a chance to really fill the coming year with all the best things. 

Simplicity is going to be the theme for the year. Keeping things low key and simple and close to the heart. Watch out 30, I'm coming for you!!! 

All work and no play...

Ok, so it hasn't been "no play," but not nearly enough play this last week.  And this coming week isn't looking very happy either.

I had a big deadline on Friday.  I made it, but just barely.  My team really pulled through.  The whole week was just insane though.  I worked until late, through lunch and went in early all week and between that and my insane Zumba schedule I am just straight up beat.

And tomorrow starts 3 insane days back to back.

At about 4:30 tomorrow morning I need to head out the door to drive to Stokesdale for a Zumba license class - Sentao.  Can we say OW!?!?! It's not going to be an easy day and then you add the 2.75 hour drive to the equation and SUPER FREAKING OW.

After the class is done I'm taking a hop skip and a jump drive over to Winston Salem and checking in to a hotel for 2 days of locked in a room fun of data jamming and testing.  So Monday I'll be sitting in a chair and not moving.  That's generally not helpful for all the soreness.

Then I get to come home and jump back on my normal Zumba schedule.

I'm really hoping that the two nights where I can't do Zumba will let my body get some much needed rest.  I would like to not be sore all over.  I also don't know what I'm going to do with 2 days without cardio.  Maybe the place I'm staying will have a good onsite gym and I can get in a short run or something before heading in?  I know I'm not running outside at early o'clock in a place I don't know.

Highlights of this past week:

1. Matt and I went running Wednesday evening and I did a full 8 minute run for just over a half a mile.  Endurance is getting way better. I have high hopes for my 5k next month!
2. I had a Zumba instructor from Raleigh come to my class Wednesday night and taught an awesome belly dance routine that I'm almost ready to introduce in to the class myself.  I love it.
3. Weigh in on Wednesday - down only .2 pounds but I was retaining water like crazy because I was dumb and ate McDonald's chicken nuggets on Tuesday night.
4. I got the nicest compliment from a lady at my YMCA class this morning - she told me I had beautiful hands when I danced and that I danced through to the very tips.
5. Choreographed a new Salsa and a cha-cha to Love Potion No. 9.  The love potion routine is a Halloween song but I'm loving it for now.

Countdown to 30 - 7 more days! WOOHOO! Bring it on 30s! I'm coming for you!

Fun, Fundraising and Freaking Exhausted.

Going in to this weekend I was exhausted. The cold that hit me on Monday was holding strong well in to Friday and I was scared that I wasn't going to survive my weekend events and my voice was 95% gone with no sign of coming back.  

Here's what was on my schedule for the weekend:

Saturday 10a: 2 hour Zumbathon for Girls on the Run.
Saturday 4p: 2 hour Zumbatomic Birthday Party for Morgan and Makenzie.
Sunday 2:15p: 1 hour Zumbatomic class
Sunday 4:30p: 75 minute Zumba class at the YMCA.

That's about 6 hours of Zumba related work and Zumbatomic is the most exhausting specialty I currently teach.  Kids are hard.  They require twice as much energy and enthusiasm as a normal Zumba class.  I guess it's fair though because the reward is twice as big.  

Friday night I went to bed early after taking my 100th dose of Zicam, EmergenC, gargling with salt water, taking NyQuil and slathering myself up with VapoRub.  

It worked well enough, I suppose.  I almost had a full voice back when I got up Saturday and I was not feeling so much like death.  So on we went.

The Girls on the Run Zumbathon? AMAZING! Girls on the Run may have won me over and I may be considering volunteering with them.  I love their mission and the way they teach self acceptance, self love and honoring your body.  Ginger from GOTR did a little exercise with the girls at the Zumbathon that I really needed.  It involved a Positivity string and throwing away the Negativity strings that people try to force upon us. Then playing a game of "tag" with positive adjectives that when we had to freeze we had to attach to the people closest to us.  It was a beautiful exercise and I loved the messages.  They resonated with me.

Mostly?  The day was about fun and dancing and playing and we did!!!

Curl in like an amoeba!

Mrs. Fatass gives a lesson on Cumbia

An unplanned circle during a game of Freeze Dance!

The Monster Mash!!

Starting a game of Center Star

Positivity string meditation

It was a blast to get to play with the kids and to watch some of them just come right out of their shell and make new friends.  I miss that about being a kid.  How every new person you meet is a best friend you just haven't met yet.  It was uplifting and made me feel great.  Even though I was still wanting nothing more than to be in my bed with hot chocolate and a book.

After all was said and done I got home, got cleaned up and had lunch while psyching myself up for the birthday party.

And you know what?  The birthday party was AWESOME too.  The two girls we were hosting the party for were turning 7 and 11 and we wound up with a full hour of giggling and dancing.  Even some of the parents and grandparents got in on the action!!!!! It was so much fun and I loved that the kids got so in to the dancing piece of the day.  It was harder with the age span but we did it.

Then Sue and I spent the second hour helping out with the food and drink portion and cleaned up the studio. I was dead tired by the time we finished up.  Like... DEAD.

I spent the evening catching up on the DVR and eating pizza with Matt and Marshall.  It was the best way to end the day.

Sunday morning came far too quickly though. I slept in a little bit, but not much and then had to go grocery shopping.  Then I spent an hour separating meats in to single serve sizes so I could easily making up meals for the week.  Lots of yummy chicken and turkey sausages and veggies for lunch and quick dinners this week.  I also did some planning about breakfasts and snacks and everything is pretty much set to go.

Then it was onward to my normal Zumbatomic class.  I had 2 little girls and 2 older boys and it was a weird class BUT it was fun and everyone got sweaty and giggly.  It took a lot out of me.  It was a hard class due to the age difference.  A 4 and 5 year old and a 9 and 10 year old. OUCH!  It wound up being incredibly satisfying though.

My class at the YMCA was smaller than normal but it also wound up just feeling good.  I went with an all cardio, playful playlist.  There were lots of call backs to old favorites and some Halloween related fun routines.  It was great.  I felt so much better about 30 minutes in to class when the endorphin rush just rose up and hit me.  I love that crew so much.  No matter how tired I am they rock me!

Today I am working from home, on my day off, and about to go run some errands with Matt.

I am still a little high on the weekend.  Why?  Because I got two of the biggest compliments from Zumbatomic kids through their parents.

First one little girl, who has been to pretty much all of my classes, was told that she was going to do Zumba for a few hours Saturday morning by her mom and she said "I don't wanna do Zumba without Miss Sam." Dead. That hit me right in the heart place. WHAM!

Secondly, the little girl from class on Sunday.  Her mom posted this on my FaceBook last night:

 And then this this morning:

Yeah... I'm so won over by the love from the little ones.  They are so open and honest and live life so unapologetically. 

So much good stuff.  

I'm still freaking exhausted though. EXHAUSTED.  After this weird week and next weekends Sentao training I am fully prepared to be dead by the end of next week... when I turn 30! EEK! It's coming up so quickly! 

I can't wait to see what year 30 brings!

Weigh in Wednesday

Last week I rejoined Weight Watchers and today was my first weigh in. 

Down 7.6 pounds. 

7.6 pounds.  I rarely see that in a month, let alone a week.  I also didn't really do anything all that differently last week either.  I was just getting back "on plan."  Silly body making me all confused.

Anyway, I'm going to keep soldiering on and only weighing in on Wednesday.  Not going to weigh in every day.  I'm not! ... If I start doing so I'll let you all know so you can shame me in to stopping, because I'm pretty bad with the obsession of weighing in.  

I'm enjoying the heck out of the #20till30 challenge.  It's been cool how people are getting their daily exercises in with new people, in new places and sharing it with me.  I'm totally digging it.

Me?  I did jumping jacks outside with Matt and then did squats with a new Zumba student at my new location last night.  Tonight?  I'm totally cheating a little bit.

Lunges - I added these because I hate them so freaking much.  Mostly because of my broken ankle from 7 years ago.  BUT I do a Zumba song that's alternating lunges.  I retired it because the lunges were making me angry with life (and my ankle) but I'm bringing it back tonight to get in my lunges in Zumba style.  It's 32 lunges on each side over the course of the fun Broadway, vamping song.  So I'll be getting my lunges in with my Zumba family.

Matt and I are also going to go for a jog, not sure about before or after class... but we'll get in at least 30 minutes.  

And then sleep.. because this cold will not let go of me! My head is stuffed full of snot and angry right now.  My right ear sounds like it's stuffed with cotton balls.  The doc said it's just a cold though so I'll just deal with it.  One or two more days and I'll be back to normal.  Just in time for a day long Zumba fest - A Zumbathon, a Zumba birthday party and then 2 classes the next day! WOOHOO!!