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!!!