I am 20/20

I have decided to do LASIK. I was tired of the glasses and contacts were a pain in the ass to try and learn. JH decided to do it first. My guinea pig. I got to see what happens and upkeep after the procedure.

Did I tell you that I am usually petrified of anyone messing with my eyes? What possessed me to even attempt such a procedure? JH, of course. He gives me courage.

Today is day 3 after the procedure and my vision is clear. I did have a slight issue after surgery that required me to wear a bandaid lens. That was a bit annoying. What's really annoying is the having to put medicated drops in and regular saline solution to keep my eyes moist. Another thing to keep me annoyed.

Before the procedure they gave me up to 10 mg of Valium. I don't think it worked. The minute they brought me into the procedure room, I was ready to bolt. However, the Jew in me said not to waste a large deposit. I did happen to have a mild panic attack. It could've been worse. Would have loved if they knocked me out, but they needed me awake. The whole procedure was less than a minute, but it felt like 4 minutes per eye. I wanted it over with the minute I laid down.

The procedure is not that bad as your mind makes it out to be. You don't feel any pain. You really don't see anything. Your mind does put more fear into it. When JH went thru it, his anxieties came after the procedure was done as we thought. We found out that he was exhibiting more because he has bruises on his eyes. I don't really have any visible bruises. He didn't have to wear a bandaid lens. We all heal and react differently.

Do I think this is for everyone? I don't know. Would I do it again? I don't think so. My anxiety level is still a bit high when it comes to my eyes. Read about the procedure. Get testimonials. Research. Get recommendations from your eye doctor. Do not refer to ads you see in papers that offer huge discounts on the procedure. This is your vision. You don't want just any Tom Dock or Harry messing with your eyes. My doctor who's a well respected eye surgeon recommended this doctor.

If you in NYC area check out www.ny2020.com. I am no way endorsing him by getting a discount. Nor is he paying me for me to promote his link. I just believe you will get good information about the procedure and what to expect.

As for now I'm okay and my vision will continue to improve as inflammation goes down. I will also have the please of walking down the isle without my glasses! That I can't wait to do.

Journey Week 2

So I've been doing this WW thing for 2 weeks now. It's going pretty well. I'm learning to pick the proper choices when I eat. I've also been drinking a ton of water. How is it going? Great. I have lost 8 POUNDS!!!!

Yes!!! I'm so happy!!! I lost 5 in first week and 3 this last week. Mind you I haven't started the exercise routine yet!! Hot damn! I'll be my goal weight sooner than later.

How am I liking this program? It's pretty good. It's more like teaching me how to eat better. It's transforming my eating habits. It's a struggle when you put what I like in front of me. It's a battle of self control. It's not like you are denied any food, it's what choices of food you eat.

You are given 29 points a day plus an additional 49 to spend during the week. Points do not roll over. Let's just concentrate on the 29 a day. This is where the decisions lie. You have to decide what will keep you in that point range. It is not good to be under it. If you go over it, then you tap into the 49 extra points. Let's say you are a McDonald's fry addict. Do you know the small takes up 11 points? That's a lot of points that's going to leave you hungry. You only have 18 points left for the day. All the stuff that you love are probably bad for you have high point values. Let's take my soup I had the other day. It was Sweet Corn Chowder. We (my friend and I who are doing the program together) believed this is a pretty healthy choice. We thought wrong. It took 18 points!!! We were just so pissed because we both had used 7 points for breakfast already. Now we only had 5 points left for dinner. The moral here is to make wise choices to what will fill you up for less points. Sometimes you careful decision will not work out for you.

One great thing about this plan is that fruit and vegetables counts as zero (0) points. You can have as much of it as you like. Vegetable like corn does not count as a vegetable though. The next great thing is the extra 49 points a week. If you know you are going out somewhere special during the week, you can save them for that occasion and eat what you like. Another great thing is that if you exercise, you gain back some points you can use daily.

My trick with this program is to drink mostly water. This is where I used to consume most of my fat. I love soda and Arizona Iced Green Tea. I actually miss drinking them. I do have an alternative: diet soda. It comes to 0 points but it tastes.... not so good. I also drink iced tea without sugar. Drinking all this water has me running for the bathroom a lot more than I care to. Sometimes I just hold it because I'm too stubborn to leave my desk. I know I'll damage my bladder and various other issues, but come on? I really can't be leavingy desk frequently just for the bathroom. I feel like I'm a smoker that has to get a nicotine fix.

Anyway, my journey is going well so far. This week I'm saving my excess points for my birthday. This should be fun. I'll give another update in the future.

Ah... My New Journey

I have been lazy for the past 4 to 5 months when it came to diet and exercise. I was doing very well for a while with P90. As you can remember from my posts about it, that I lost my mojo for it. It became very redundant. I am not very good at redundancy. I also started up Hip Hop Abs. I didn't give it up though. I went on vacation. I came back ready to start up again, but life got busy trying to catch up. Then I left again. I came back and just never thought about it again.

Well I am the heaviest I've ever been in my life. It is starting to effect me in ways I never noticed. I am attributing my tummy issues, my feet issues and skin issues to this. Plus, I noticed that I'm more winded when my period comes. I also think it's affecting my sexual performance. I can't have that. So I decided I must do something about it. Plus, if I want to carry a baby, I need to be healthy.

What am I doing? I decided to get back into Hip Hop Abs and I've joined Weight Watchers. Today is actually my 1st official day on the program and I'm hungry already!!! Tonight I'm going start my exercise program too. Hopefully, my boyfriend will keep me motivated in the exercise. He says he's going to try the program with me. My employee/friend also joined with me. So we are going to make sure we help each other stick to the diet.

Let's see if this will work. I've heard that WW is great. Look at Jennifer Hudson. It should work for me. That's if I stick with it. I so need to. I need constant encouragement and not lectures. I don't tolerate lectures well. Makes me want to do the opposite. I will post some results here as I go along. Wish me luck on my new journey. I so need it.

Hip Hop Abs After 1 Day

So we all know we gave up on P90 exercise routine because it became too repetitive and boring. I griped about it in every one of my posts. I should've done the P90X with JH. That is another story I'm going into. I hate pull ups and that's all over that program.

I had JH get Hip Hop Abs. I love dancing. So I may keep up on this. The operative is "may". If I get bored I'll give it up too. Hopefully I won't. There are only like a handful of routines. There repetiitive at times. I am not giving such a optimistic view because I know myself. I get bored and then I move to the next exciting thing. One thing I have learned about myself is that I don't have an addictive personality. I may like something a lot but within a couple weeks I am no longer interested. i don't think I'd make a good drug or alcohol addict, lol.

So let me tell you about my first routine yesterday. It went not as I expected. It is called Fat Burning Cardio. It is cardio with dancing steps. At first it was easy and fun. Then all of sudden I'm drenched. I turned on the ac in middle. I normally get cold right away in ac, but not yesterday. I was still hot and sweaty. The whole thing is like learning a dance routine. The half hour went by really quick. I still wanted more.

The presenter is completely weird. I get the gay vibe then I get a Tyler Perry vibe off of him. His body is sick tho. Tim Horton of P90 series has a sick body too, but it's not the same. I believe if all the routines are as fun and high energy, it will keep my attention.

Let's hope this routine will become a stable. It does make my dancing genes happy.

Next post in a week.

Week 7 & 8

I have barely done P90 these past 2 weeks. It's boring!!!! I do like the Sculpt class. I hate the cardio class. I f'in hate Jumping Jacks!!!!!!!

At the beginning of week 8 I twisted my knee a little in sculpt class doing lunges. My leg slipped on the carpet. I didn't know how much pain a little twist can cause. I didn't scream out because I was trying to be a big girl, lol. I really didn't want JH to worry too much. It hurts walking up stairs or bending my knee to get into the tub, etc.

So I planned to get back into the program this week, but my knee isn't quite ready for all the Jumping Jacks and Run Lunges. I can't wait until spring where I can do lots of walking. :)

My Bi-weekly Progress (Weeks 5 & 6)

I totally hate working on this routine now. It's boring and mundane. 6 weeks with the same routine is just so boring. I just barely get thru the routines.

JH and myself start having great conversations thru the workouts to keep ourselves stimulated. I have lost 2 additional pounds the last 2 weeks. So I have lost a total of 8 lbs in total. We have stopped doing measurements. Even though the measuring tape says that I am losing inches, I do not see it. My brother says I look smaller. Eh, I don't see it. JH is losing weight too and I see the differences on him. Apparently it great to be a man and sucks to be a woman.

At the end of week 6 I stopped the routine on the Wed. I decided to wait until Sun of Week 7 to start again because we have new routines, or so I thought. I really was hoping for a change in routine.

Here are the changes for Week 7 that I already started:

Sculpt 3-4: added a new push up to routine, added some new weightlifting routines, and increased the lunge/squat reps.

Sweat 3-4: all it did was add more reps to the existing routine. For example, we used to do 2 routines of jumping jacks, now we do 3 routines. And now we do 200 sit-ups instead of 100.

Such a big difference. I am so thrilled. (Can you sense the sarcasm?) I am going to stick to the program as much as I can. Just know this: I F'IN HATE JUMPING JACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weeks 3 & 4 Combined = Results

I mentioned in my last update that the workouts are getting a bit monotonous. I am keeping up with the workouts though. JH is doing his best to keep me motivated. It does help a lot that he does it with me. If not, I'd probably skip out on doing the exercises.

Week 3 was pretty mundane.  I didn't do so hot. I maintained my diet. I didn't stray. I am using a calorie tracker app on my iPhone called MyNetDiary. It helps you scan in the food you eat, track your measurements, water and weight. It's a neat app, I've been using it since I have started this program. Here's my results for Week 3:

Lost 1" in chest  (lost 3.5" in total)
Gained 0.5" in waist ( lost 1" in total)
No change in hip (lost 2" in total)
Gained 4" in thigh (lost 0" in total)
Gained 1 lb (lost 3 lbs in total)

Week 4 was awful. This week I experienced my monthly visitor and was really not motivated at all. I kept up with the exercises. I didn't keep up with the diet. It's hard to keep up on a diet when your visitor is dictating what you need to keep it at bay, lol. I ate a lot of not healthy food. I only ate the healthy food JH cooked for dinner. Breakfast & lunch were not so grand. I did snack a lot too. So I expected the worst at this morning's weigh in. Take a look at what happened. I am totally shocked. I didn't expect it at all. It's a blessing that I never thought I was going get. So I'm still on the road to a better me.

Week 4
Gained 1" in chest (lost 2.5" in total)
Lost 1" in waist (lost 2" in total)
Lost 1" in hip (lost 3" in total)
Lost 2" in thighs (lost 2" in total)
Lost 3 lbs (lost 6 lbs in total)

Week 2 Results

This is finishing week 2 of the 90 day, P90 workout regime. It is getting a bit mundane and repetitive. Usually I'd quit by now with any other regime. I hate repetitive stuff. It is boring and I start to lose my interest.

I am starting to lose my interest but JH is doing his best to keep me motivated. He really does. He also suggests to take it light on days that I am tired. This past week I had 2 of those days. One cardio day and one weight lifting day. The weight day I went from using 5lb weights to my 2lb ones.

I had great results this week, tho:
- Lost 1" from my chest (2 in total)
- Lost 1" from my waist (1.5 in total)
- Lost 1" from my hip (2 in total)
- Gained 1" in my thighs (4 in total)
- LOST 4 lbs!!!!! Yeah Baby!!!!

Let's see how much I change at end of the 90 days. 72 more days to go!!

Getting Myself Into Tip Top Shape

With a new year, my resolution is to get my health straight. This means losing weight & getting fit. I have found someone in my life that makes me really happy. Makes me want to live my life as long as possible. I believe I was in a downward spiral before JH. It's not like I was trying to kill myself, but in a sense I wasn't looking out for me and my health.

My work is stressful, so by time I came home, I didn't want to eat right. I wanted what was quick and easy. Also I didn't exercise. I found it dull and boring. Workout regimes only lasted 2 weeks before I lost complete interest in it. All of this contributed to me gaining weight and developing health issues like high cholesterol and lacking Vitamin D.

Since JH came into my life, I feel I need to get in shape for him & myself.  For him, so he will stay attracted to me. He says I'm fine, but me being a woman, don't believe that. For me, so I can live and enjoy an active life with JH. I want to hike with him, and do a lot of physical stuff with him. So I want to be in enough shape that I can keep up with him. Also, when it's time, I would like to be healthy enough to carry and deliver a healthy baby for him.

So, this is what I decided to do... I decided to take up the Power 90 Boot Camp. We also have the Power 90x too.  I was going to do the P90X, but it's way too advance for what shape I'm in. So I chose to do P90 first. If this one works out well, then I'll move to P90X at a later point.

The P90 routine is a pretty basic routine. It's an alternate between cardio & abs and weight lifting. This routine goes on for 90 days. It does increase the strength half way thru the regime. I am also watching what I am eating. I'm drinking a lot more water. I am also only allowing my self 1 processed sugar item a day. That way I don't feel deprived and won't want to cheat on the diet.  Every Sun, Tues & Thurs I have Sculpt (weight lifing & muscle building/toning). Every Mon, Wed & Fri is Sweat & Ab Ripper 100 (Cardio and abs, lol). Sat is rest day. Very predictable. Best thing about the routine, JH is doing it with me. He's doing both the P90 & the P90x.

We have finished one week of the regime. We measured ourselves at the start. We will also measure ourselves weekly. I am not taking before & after shots. I am not very fond of picture taking.  So here's my results.

          - Lost 1.5 in from my chest
          - Lost 0.5 in from my waist
          - Lost 1 in from my hip
          - Lost 5 in from my thighs (left & right combined)
          - My weight stayed the same, I built more muscle to replace the little fat I lost.
        
Pretty good my first week. JH blazed this week with losing 4 lbs, but he's doing 2 regimes and also changing his diet.

I will keep you posted.