See That Girl, Watch That Scene...

Today I went to see Mamma Mia with two of my best girls.  We had a lovely picnic before hand with all manner of healthy and delicious foods and maybe a little sparkling rose thrown in too.  It was a perfect day, warm but breezy with no humidity which is always a welcome surprise in the southeast.  I really needed today and it was everything I could have hoped for.

I have been working a lot the past few months, had a few seriously stressful moments and have been doing almost an annoying amount of self reflection.  However, this past week has been lovely and relaxing and exactly what the doctor ordered.

Btw, I tried doing the Jillian Michaels workout dvd that banishes fat and boosts your metabolism and ummmm.... not for beginners.  It's actually for mostly fit persons who want to tone even more.  The lovely ladies helping her in the dvd looked like triathletes.  Yeah, not so much like me.  I gave it a good college try but when I was sure I was having a stroke I decided to back off and re-evaluate my netflix workout dvds.

OMG

I totally just received my very first blog award! Thank you so much Paula for bestowing my little ole blog with this:



Tee hee! (geeking out noises!)

The 411

Whew! Okay, let me get my thoughts together in some organized fashion so that this post isn't a complete disaster. It's been an interesting couple of weeks and months. :)

The fluctuation of the economy has taken it's toll on many and I am very fortunate and very lucky to still be treading water. It has not been easy. Even though I have been busy promoting and marketing, the actual appointments have been somewhat few and far between. Throw in several last minute cancellations and you have a lot of low income months for me. So low in fact (here is the embarrassing honesty) that I am seriously considering applying for food assistance and Medicaid. I currently do not have health insurance and haven't for almost 6 years now. After health care, food seems to be my most expensive necessity. I still have to see if I am eligible but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Other news, I have decided to move out of my amazingly lovely and well situated apartment (which is quite pricey for me now) in January. :( I have been here for three years and have absolutely loved living within walking distance to work and everything else downtown. But one must change with the times. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to rent a room in the beautiful house of the brother of a good friend in the neighboring county. It really only adds about ten minutes to my commute but I wont be able to walk to work anymore. Positives; huge kitchen with all the amenities and then some, central air, a huge front porch equipped with rocking chairs and porch swing, a border collie named Chico, a washer and dryer and plenty of laughs. I hope that this move will allow me to get back on track with my finances.

I leave for Denver on Sunday and I am soooooo excited! I get to spend time with my dear friends Erin and Jonathan, their two adorable children and one schmoopy named Mable. So trying to cram everything into this week and part of next (I fly back Wednesday) has been a little hair raising.

Halloween is fast approaching and every weekend this month was already booked back in September. Not with massage appointments yet but with social functions. One that I am really psyched about it is the Highland Games! Large men in kilts throwing things? YES PLEASE. I know I shouldn't say this on a weight loss blog but I have been waiting a whole year to try another one of their deep fried Mars bars. I am going to try to be very diligent with my diet and exercise so that this particular treat day wont be a huge set back.

My diet has been off the charts these past few months. I know what I need to do and I just hope I can get my butt in gear and do it. I seem to go bonkers at social events especially if dirty martinis are involved. I went to a wedding last month and was seated next to the bar.... not a good thing for my diet. I don't tie one on often but when I do.... look out!

I started back at the gym so my September and October have been much more active. Not to mention this little guy below keeping me busy with several walks a day.

His name is Andy.

I watched him for almost two weeks for a friend's parents and he was the sweetest little schmoopy in the whole wide world. He went home tonight and I miss him already. But, not to worry he will be back for 3 weeks in December. :)

This may be the only post I will have a chance to write before I leave but I promise to be back soon with pics of beautiful Colorado.

Take Care!

Holy Moly!

Hello Bloggers!

How is the summer (or winter for those down under) treating you? I've got a busy little life going on here. Friends moving, friends visiting... more friends moving, oy! However the thing that is taking up most of my time ( I would love to type "exercise and awesome weight loss") is my business. I am currently reading this amazing small business book written especially for massage therapists and I have started implementing the changes I need to make and the work I need to do immediately.

I'm talking 24/7...365. If I am not physically working on someone I am promoting, emailing, calling, networking, decorating and redecorating my totally sweet bigger and better office. I haven't been to the gym or worked out in 2 weeks and it has to stop. I know it would help with the anxious and restless nights I have been having. I am border line obsessed with making my business successful but I must remember to put myself first because without me there would be no business.

Even though I am working my tail off, I don't have the money to show for it just yet. I know that will come in time but for now this chica is beyond broke. And you know what happens to your grocery list when you have $20 to stretch into several days worth of food? Cheap, filling and poor choices for your pantry and fridge. I try to make the best decisions but sometimes my hunger gets in the way. Hopefully that situation will change by next week. :)

I was super excited because I thought my ridiculously expensive gym membership was up in October ( I got a three year) but when I called to check I was informed that is was up in October... of 2010. Boo! When I first got the membership it was easy peasy to get there but now with development in the area the traffic has become horrible and takes a standard 30 minutes to get there. It's only less than 10 miles away!!! I was so looking forward to having that extra money to pay bills and play catch up. I had visions of utilizing the netflix exercise dvd's in my own home. That will have to wait I guess.

Needless to say, I have to get back into the swing of things. Morning workouts need to start happening since I am on call for appointments from 10am on. I am going to start with a reasonable number like working out 3 times a week. It doesn't have to be the gym but it needs to be a good workout of some kind. Walking around the track, a dance class.. the gym I am still paying for! ;)

I am loving the book The Core Balance Diet. It takes you through the very babiest of steps to changing your life for the better and as soon as this girly has more than $20 to buy groceries I will be heading to Wegman's for my first weeks worth of body balancing ingredients.

On a super positively awesome note, I am going to Colorado in October to visit my amazingly generous and lovely friends, the Youngs! I can't wait!

On Wegman's, Work News and Wonderful Cheese

That's right, you read it correctly....Fredericksburg has finally come into it's own. We got a Wegman's!! I never really new what I was missing until I toured the mecca that is Wegman's. The organic section alone made my head swoon and it was love at first sight the moment I laid eyes on the cheese area. I did manage to restrain myself on my first ever shopping trip there. Partly because I had a limited budget and partly because it was the grand opening and you could barely move. I did however have coupons for a free packet of Wegman's butter and Wegman's BBQ sauce... I chose to go with Memphis style as opposed to Asian (it contained high fructose corn syrup as it's first ingredient.)


I purchased a fresh loaf of pain de champagne ( AMAZING!!), rye crackers, Italian salami, reduced fat cream cheese, Drunken Goat cheese (my absolute favorite), a mixture of olives and the brown Wegman's bag contains one everything bagel which I had for breakfast this morning. :)


The bbq sauce, organic 1% milk, salad mix, butter and the white bag contains and assortment of rugelach from the bakery. Sigh.
I cannot wait until the crowds die down to go back and truly explore all the wonders that store has to offer.

On to other news. Most of you know (cause it's on the side bar;)) that I am reading Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth. Well it took me a while to connect with the book but I have and was it ever amazing. My eyes have been opened to a new way of being. A new way of looking at life, the world and myself. I am not quite finished with the book just yet. It's a lot to go over and contemplate and to be honest... I don't want to rush it. I am enjoying it too much. :D

I don't know if it's the book or the work I have been doing for a while on positive thinking and the Law of Attraction but something very exciting has happened. My business partner and I are doing well enough that we have decided to get a much bigger office. We have also decided to take the leap on an idea we have been sitting on for quite a while. It's still in it's infancy BUT we are opening the Alternative Wellness Center of Fredericksburg!!! I will go into more details in a later post but for now here are some pictures of our new (as of August 1st) office.


It's located right next to the buildings elevator which is awesome since we both have elderly and handicap clients.

A nice big welcoming waiting area. I see it painted a soothing color with warm comfy seating, plants, soft music, soft lighting and candles.

It has a separate storage room for a fridge, microwave and plenty of shelving for sheets, lotions and oils.

Don't worry these desks will be gone before we move in. :) It has two separate offices for private massage, reiki, reflexology and healing rooms.

It was like these rooms were made for massage. The back wall has a built in ledge that can hold any manner of decorative things, candles, lotions and whatnots.

This little alcove could be anything. We have a number of ideas for this space.
It really is coming together beautifully. Wonderful things are unfolding every day and I am excited and curious how it will all turn out. Our marketing has been really aggressive and is starting to pay off. Our main goal is to help people. To offer folks an alternative to healing, wellness and health. A place they feel safe and can trust... after all, isn't that really all anyone wants? :)

Well, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't include some pics of delicious, whole foods so here goes.

This weekend my favorite wine bar/shop, Kybecca was having a sale on their cheeses.... of which there are many and they are all delicious. I managed to limit myself to just 3 but they were unfortunately the three most expensive. :/

I only have pics of the two I have tried so far which combined with some fruit made a delicious and oh so European lunch.

The yellow one is a semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Virginia. Have to say that I didn't care for it as much as I hoped to. It may be better cooked into a dish but on it's on it was too gamey. The white cheese however I could eat all day. It's a french Camembert that was as smooth as butter. Some rinds on cheeses are meant to be enjoyed like certain Bries but this one you will want to remove. It is very bitter and has a distinct penicillin flavor which made my eyes tear.

Cherries!!!! My favorite fruit!

This with crackers is all you really need in life. :)

Be good to yourselves blogger friends.... it's the truest road to happiness. :)

Pretty Little Things

I thought I might take a break from food pics (since I haven't really been inspired to take any lately) and shift my focus to other baubles that make me smile. I felt an urge to stop by Ulta on Sunday and and here are my purchases:


Two very different styles of L'Oreal eyeliners, two Rimmel lip glosses, 1 four set eye shadow for blue eyes and a two set eye shadow in the Hip collection of L'Oreal called Showy.


One side is a metallic turquoise and the other a deep and gorgeous blue. As much as I love these colors I have to say that I did not care for the shadows. They do not cover the lid evenly and you wind up with more pigment on your cheek than eyelid. Also, not a good color for my skin tone. :(


When I saw these colors on the display I fell in love. They remind me of the amazing Clinique lip glosses that my home girl, Patherine turned me on to. However, they don't have much pigment when you put them on your lips and the worst part is they smell and taste sickeningly sweet. I will be returning these along with the above eyeshadow and the black pencil eyeliner I purchased but forgot to take a close up pic of.

But this lovely thing I will most definitely be keeping. It's almost like a Sharpie it goes on so smooth and easy. I am horrible at eyeliner application but this I could do. :)

This one is also a keeper. It even comes with easy four step application instructions on the back of the package and the shadow goes on much smoother and stays on the lid. Score!

I have been thinking the past couple of days about what I would like this blog to focus on. I don't want to focus on what I deny myself but nor do I want to be a glutton. I would really like to focus on what makes me feel good and happy. Truly happy not just material happy and making myself up so that I feel really pretty does wonders for my soul. That and pedicures!

Summer toenails on pale winter feet! :)

Birthday Fun Fun!

Wowza! Where has the time gone? I had the best intentions of blogging the Monday following my bday but somehow time has gotten away from me once again. Can Can was amazing! I think we were there a total of 4 hours eating, drinking and being merry. I didn't over do the food but definitely indulged in the drinky poos. My wonderful friends got together a purchased this amazing gift for me:

I know, right!!! Now I can actually start documenting my food via photographs instead of boring old lists and maybe indulge my inner food blog geek by pretending I can actually create and cook delicious recipes. So far my thirty third year of life has been pretty sweet. :)

Cheers!!

Back To The Drawing Board

Howdy. Gosh, where to begin...
Okay, I'll just jump right in, shall I? Monday was my first day at the Dr.'s office. The night before I barely slept because of the fear that I would over sleep and miss my first day (silly). So needless to say I was running on adrenaline that morning. I get to the office and unbeknownst to me I have a half hour massage scheduled right at 9am (when my shift starts). Cool, massage I can do. No biggie. The office manager is apologizing profusely about not calling me to let me know on Friday so that I could come in earlier and get my bearings. Again, no big deal. So the rest of the day I have about 4 massages, sweet huh? I have time to fill out paper work, eat my lunch, get the lay of the office and try to get to know my new coworkers.

Long story short, through a few pointed questions and some random overheard comments I discovered something truly crappy, that I was completely mislead as to what my monetary compensation would be. I was told at the beginning that I would be getting a salary based on a 40 hour work week with a half hour paid lunch and half hour paid administrative time. NOT SO! Come to find out I would only be paid when a massage was booked and only $16 for a one hour deep tissue and $8 for a half hour session. WTF!! Market prices are $85 and $45. Had I known that I would never have taken the job in the first place. That amount of money is almost third world. My work is worth far more than that. I am good at what I do and I can't believe that this Dr. thinks that amount of money is okay.

At the end of my shift on Monday I asked to speak to the office manager. I told her my concerns and how I felt misled and she completely understood. Since there was no room for improvement in compensation I said thanks but no thanks and have since moved on. I am back at the spa and feeling really welcomed and appreciated. I took Tuesday off to process some emotions. I felt really sad and pathetic and a little stupid and the more I explained it to my friends and family the more stupid I felt. Yesterday I just felt angry and wanted to hit something. Today I am feeling a little better.

I managed to keep my eating just so-so and I did make it to the gym on Wednesday and have plans to go to two classes on Sunday. I have to come up with a new schedule now since I am back to a on call work. On a positive note I did join the three free months of Weight Watchers on line that I won courtesy of Token Fat Girl. I am still playing around with it and will let you know how it goes and if I have any questions that you all could help me with.

Here's to another bump in the road. :)

Drive By Posting

I am able to squeeze one more posting on this here weight loss blog and I am super duper excited about it. :D

I won 3 FREE months of Weight Watchers' Momentum program from a giveaway that Lorrie from The Token Fat Girl was hosting. Maybe this is the program that will work for me or at least help me on my road to fitness and healthy living. WOO HOO!!

Bon Voyage!

I will return after these short messages........ ON THE 22nd!!! :)

Where The Heck Have I Been?!

It's been almost three weeks since I've posted and that's just CRAZY! There has been a lot going on since the Turkey Trot. The biggest and most important thing as been my inspiration. That 5k walk/run was exactly what I needed. I have really enjoyed the focus that seems to be taking over my workouts. I have been doing double workouts on Sundays and trying to hard core exercise 4 days a week. However this week is a little shot since I leave for the wedding cruise on Friday and seem to be suffering from a slight sinus issue today which has totally sapped my energy. But it still can't diminish my excitement for the Caribbean!!!

Seriously you guys, I can not wait to feel that warm ocean breeze, sand between my toes and a pina colada in my hand. We are very fortunate to be cruising on the Independence of the Seas by Royal Caribbean. This ship is INSANE! Not only does it have a gagillion pools, clubs and restaurants but it has one of the most beautiful gyms one can find on a cruise liner. I swear I am not just saying this because this is a weight loss blog but I really can't wait to workout on this vacation. Imagine walking around a track on the lido deck with nothing but the beautiful blue ocean as your backdrop. Sigh. They also offer yoga and pilates! I made a promise to myself that this vacation would be an active one. Relaxing but active which is why I have signed up to do Snuba on St. Thomas and Para Sailing on Labadee. So exciting!!!!

No on to more boring news, my eating has definitely suffered the past week and a half. The reason? No groceries and I don't plan on buying any before the trip. What would be the point since most of it would spoil before I returned? But guess what? On the ship they have every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine and I can't wait to consume them all. :) Since my funds are a little tight I have no plans to do any serious partying so this would be the perfect time to really detoxify my body and to soak up plenty of vitamins and minerals.

If I don't post before Christmas I hope that you all have a very healthy and happy holiday!!!

Soooo Tired.....

but I wanted to post my Turkey Trot time. This was my first ever marathon run/walk and I was totally smitten. Everyone was in such great spirits before, during and after and I really felt like I accomplished something awesome!

My official time for walking the 5k was: 55:23. Which beat my training time by almost 10 minutes! I guess it was the adrenaline and the people cheering us on. My mom and I finished together by running the last few feet and singing the Chariots of Fire theme song out loud. It ruled! Patherine was there cheering us on in her lovely blue Hello Kitty hat. Bless her!

I hope that more people will join us next year. It was loads of fun.

Must go now..... so sleepy.

Happy Turkey Day!

Yes We Can!

Congratulations new First Family!!

Validation

Hello Bloggy McBloggersons! I trust that everyone is doing well out there in bloggerland. Hmmm... let's see. How many more cheesy references can I make about blogging? I wouldn't know because I am going to stop here. :)

I just wanted to share with you what happened today at work. It was a really good work day. Not too many clients and not too few. It was a very Goldilocks kind of day. Everyone at the shop was in a good mood and I was really feeling my massage mojo. I had a client come in today whom I haven't seen in a few months. She is actually one of my favorite clients....she is just so damned cute! Well anyway, after my kick ass massage she came out to the front to pay and just as she was about to leave she turned and said, "Girl, you have lost weight! A lot of weight." Needless to say I was shocked and super pleased. I said that I have been trying and she said that she could tell because my face and upper body are much slimmer. And of course I started doing the whole, "No, I haven't really lost that much....." blah blah blah. Olivia just take the damn compliment and say thank you!! So I stopped myself and said, "Thank you. I have been working really hard." YES!!! God it felt good to hear an unexpected validation for my efforts. I have been flying high all day.

That's all. :)

Gateful

I have decided after watching Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life for like the billionth time that I am going to start putting up on my sidebar someone or something that I am grateful for everyday. I know that by doing this it will help me to focus more intently on the positive which is how I want to approach my journey to health. :)

Maybe by doing this I can stop focusing on what I want "to lose" and help me appreciate more of what I have gained. For instance tonight I have a date with the scale at my gym. Once that is through I will be enjoying a hip hop dance class. I am thankful that I belong to a gym that I actually like.

What are you grateful for?