P90X, Week 11, Day 3 (substituted with Brazil Butt Lift)

I can't believe I survived two back to back Brazil Butt workouts. I had intended to do Ab Ripper X and ONE Brazil Butt workout. Unbeknownst to me, however, the first workout (called "Bum Bum Rapido") is only 10 minutes long. So I decided to do the next workout after that one as well, which was about 30 minutes long. I do not think that these workouts were nearly as difficult as the Bum Bum workout; however, I was covered in sweat head to toe when I finished, and I felt the burn in all the right places.

Exciting news.... my friend just sold me a TV/VCR/DVD combo which my husband REALLY didn't want me to get, because it's one of those big bulky box TV's... but I'm so psyched, because about a month ago I cleaned out my VHS tapes and found a ton of workout tapes that I forgot I even had. I'm going to do some Vintage workouts in the near future. lol. My VCR has been broken for years (thanks, kids) and I still have the entire Buns of Steel set, unopened. I bought the set at Big Lots about 10 years ago for around 50 cents per tape. Even then they were outdated! I was telling another friend of mine about it, and she was jealous, because she used to own Buns of Steel and said it had been taken off the market because people kept falling during one particular move. Then she saw it being used on "The Biggest Loser", which is as we know, a popular modern day weight loss show. I bet it sounds silly that I'm excited over a VCR, huh... Well, in addition to the Buns of Steel, I have some other workout videos like pilates, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, among others.

Other exciting news... I got to go shopping again today. It's payday. I believe I have become a shopaholic. But it's SO FUN to buy smaller sizes and to try on clothes. When I look in the mirror, I still feel fat, but the clothes make me feel better once I put them on. Today I bought a cute orange'ish top and a long white hippie skirt. I can wear it to work and/or church and/or wherever.

Even more exciting news... My husband bought a new TV. It's a new chapter in our lives.. I remember the last time we purchased a family TV; It was right after Dylan was born, and it just kind of 'showed up' in my house. It was a 55 inch, Mitsubishi rear projection HDTV 1080. In other words, it was this humongous rectangular BOX with a speaker. I was NOT happy, because it was an expensive purchase and I was a stay at home mom, which means we had no money. He financed it, which made it even worse. I ended up paying the thing off with my short term disability check from work (I worked up until Dylan was born), and from then on I've referred to it as "MY" TV. Now we're tossing it aside. It's gotten old and none of the inputs work except for the digital cable, which means that you can't play video games or watch movies on it. It's also slow to start up sometimes. It's time :( So, we took our tax refund money and got a new TV. It's exciting, like having a new family member. I haven't had much time to check it out due to the above mentioned workouts, but it's a 3D Plasma Smart TV and it's like 100 inches or something... No, I'm exaggerating, but the thing is huge. I'm not even sure how many inches it is. I just asked my husband- it's 64 inches. He would know! It's like a giant computer... I mean, you can do anything on it. I just hope it lasts longer than the other TV did... Remember the olden days when the TVs lasted 20+ years?
With that being said, we are also getting our home alarm system updated. lol.
So, that's all the news... 2 new TVS... one super cool high tech one, and one super cool dinosaur age one, that I can watch Buns of Steel on. How ironic that seems.

P90X, Week 11, Day 2

Tonight, I did Shoulders and Arms again, and I am planning on doing Brazil Butt Lift, though I'm resting at the moment. It's getting late, and tomorrow is Monday. Eesh. I have paperwork to do as well. 2 things: I BROUGHT it tonight, and 2. My shoulders and arms are looking nice!

P90X, Week 11, Day 1

Okay, so I cleaned all day yesterday and missed Day 1 of Week 11. I'm not happy with myself, but I did have a good excuse: my sister in law came to visit! We had a great time. Today I'm getting back on track, and went to the gym earlier and burned 638 calories on the eliptical machine. Just finished Ab Ripper X as well, and that burns over 300 calories in just 15 minutes. My abs are coming right along :) Today I realized that I actually have 3 weeks left, not 2, because there is a week 13. In a way, it's a bummer, but in another wayit's a relief, because it gives me an extra week to get the pounds off. I didn't want to finish up feeling too disappointed.

It's really late, but I am thinking about doing the back, shoulder, & arms video also. That was what I was supposed to do for Week 11, Day 1, but I did the cardio to kind of make up for yesterday. Plus I just did my arms 2 days ago.  I need to have nice arms/shoulders for the dress I'm wearing to my friends' wedding in September. I will try to find a pic and post it later.

So, ppl are finally starting to notice I've lost weight. Today, a friend who didn't know I was dieting/exercising and isn't on facebook to see my daily updates, commented that I'd lost a lot of weight. She said, "What's your secret?" and I said, "Counting calories and working out every day". She replied, "Oh :( Don't you have any other secrets?" lol

P90X, Week 10, Day 7. JUST TWO MORE WEEKS!

So, today is Rest and Stretch Day! Unfortunately, I didn't really get to do either. I cleared my schedule so that I could work on cleaning my entire house, because my sister in law is coming to visit tomorrow. I'm super excited she's coming (she's never been here overnight), and I want my house to be presentable. As a full time working mama of 2 busy, busy kids, my house looks like a hoarder house about 85% of the time. Not only do I not have time to clean, I absolutely HATE to clean! It's something I really struggle with, and it's the only complaint my husband has about being married to me. I have suggested hiring a maid; I mean, c'mon, I am bringing home quite a lot of bacon, I deserve a break, too. But cleaning ladies are expensive, and my husband doesn't understand my need for one. "This is a very small house", he says, "It should be easy to keep clean". Well, he's right. But it's just not my strength, ya'll. I was trying to think about what my strengths are today, and sadly, I don't have many. lol. I'm good at writing, I'm good at mothering (not perfect, but good), and I'm really good at making money. I do not mean to sound like I'm bragging in any way by saying that; I just have this knack for landing good jobs, making good money, and also saving/investing/etc. Too bad I also really love to shop. I truely wish I had other talents besides making money. Like being clean & organized. Oh yeah~ I'm a GREAT cook, when I have time to actually cook! Lately it's been hard to even find the time to buy groceries TO cook.

Ok, enough complaining. I really went on a tangent there. My point is that I exercised by cleaning. I also did some calisthenics at home; some abs exercises, leg lifts, butt lifts, etc... that I just kind of made up on my own, to target my "problem areas". I only have 2 weeks left, and I don't mean to be negative, but I know I won't be where I want to be by then. I am still trying to decide what I will be doing next. Possibly Insanity, possibly just cranking up the cardio and using kettlebells, and possibly trying to run every morning. The third option makes me cringe, because I hate, hate, hate running with a passion. I just know that I need to tone up my upper thighs and my butt. And I still have my love handles to work on, too. 

I have to say, I have given this P90X program a good try. I wouldn't say I have given it 100%, but possibly 95%. I lost another lb today, so that's 15 lbs total doing P90X, and 32 overall since January. My clothes are all falling off of me, and I'm getting lots of compliments. I really cannot complain about it, you know? So what if I still have a little chub; I've still got a month to work on it before the pool opens, and 3 months to work on it before our family beach vacation. I know I can do this!!!

P90X, Week 10, Day 6

Today's workouts were Ab Ripper X and Shoulders and Arms. I had to wait until after 9:00 PM to start them, due to my long work day (day job + church job). I have to say, there are only a couple of workouts in the P90X program that make me feel like a complete bada$$, and Shoulders and Arms is one of them. I've definitely gotten stronger. I made it through the bonus round. Ab Ripper X was the same as always, 16 minutes of excruciating pain, but it's working... No pain, no gain, right?? My waist is sooo much smaller now; I just wish the flab on the front side would GO AWAY. I don't know much more that I can do other than to just step up the cardio.

Well, tomorrow is rest and stretch day, so as of tomorrow, I will be done with week 10. That means I only have 2 weeks left. I do not look like the people on the box OR in the videos, but I do look a lot better than I did 10 weeks ago :)

P90X, Week 10, Day 5

Well..... today I got up early and went to my Step Aerobics class, which was soo much fun. I was bouncing around so much and it's such a great feeling to look in the mirror and see my shirt gaping off of me where my big stomach used to be ;) Step Aerobics was an hour long, and I felt really energized afterwards. I wanted to keep working out, but I had to come home, shower, and go see my clients. I am about to do my shoulders and arms now. I am actually supposed to do Core Synergistics; however, my legs are pretty sore from Plyo, Yoga, and Step Aerobics, that I am going to let them rest for tonight. Core Synergistics involves quite a bit of legwork. Tonight I'll be focusing on upper body. Lemme go do that and I'll blog more once I'm done!

Sad :(

Lately, there has been an awful lot of drama in my life, and it's taken an emotional toll on me. I have always been a very introverted, quiet person, and I mostly stay to myself. A few months ago, someone started working with me at our church (I only work 1 night a week), and with her she brought a lot of drama. I thought she was super nice and I enjoyed working with her. Then, slowly, I started noticing that she was becoming closely intertwined into the lives of my coworkers at church. People there were having personal issues, as people do, and it just seemed as though she was very wrapped up into everyone else's lives. She appeared to be trying to help them in their different situations, yet she shared a lot of personal information about these people with me (and who knows who else). I kept quiet about it for a long time. Then, about a month ago, she let something very personal slip out about a coworker's child. This particular coworker was gesturing a finger gun to her head that night and was visibly upset. I approached said coworker after work hours to see if she was ok. We have been friends for 4 years now, after all. In doing so, I created a bit of a mess, because the coworker got upset with the person who told the "secret". I didn't realize it was a "secret" because she shared it with me and two other people who were in the room at that time. I honestly thought it was common knowledge at that point. Apparently the coworker got mad at the blabber, and told her off. I received a message from the one who blabbed, saying she thought she could trust me and talk to me safely. I apologized about 3x (via text message through a game we were playing), but she deleted me from the game and then from Facebook. That hurt me. I became angry and stayed upset for about 2 days. I talked with my coworker (the one whose son was talked about) and she said she was ok and to let the whole thing go. So I tried. 
Then I started thinking.... a lot... about all the things this person had shared with me about the coworker, and it upset me because I had been in the middle of this awkward situation for months and months. The person had been acting like the coworker's friend but blabbing all kinds of confidential information about the coworker's life to us. I became angry, and with some pushing from the coworker, I did reveal some of the things that the woman said about her. MY BAD. Well, since then, the coworker and I have been friends, and the person has not been back in the nursery working with us anymore. However, they've remained friends as well, and I'm cool with that. 

FRIDAY night, I took said coworker to a women's retreat held by my church. I sat next to another friend there who immediately got up in my face about the whole situation. I am guessing the Blabber must have told her this information. I was so upset, because all of this had happened over a month ago, and I'd really tried to let it go. I just wanted to go to this retreat and have a good time, and I brought said coworker there to have a nice time and thought it might influence her in a positive way. The in-my-face-friend basically accused me of being the problem, and said that as a Christian I should have confronted the Blabber and made peace with her. I explained that I tried to do that at first by apologizing 3 times, even though I did nothing wrong...This friend told me that Blabber had been talking about me and this friend remained up in my face, and made me feel really uncomfortable. no matter how much I tried to back away. What I really wanted to say is, it's none of your business, and get out of my face. Sidenote- the in my face friend happens to be a HUGE gossip, and no one really likes her for that reason. I just tend to root for the underdog and embrace the ppl no one else likes. l.ol. Maybe I need to stop doing that. I told her it had been dealt with and to let it go.

Today, I got a call from the staff at church wanting to bring me into a meeting with the Blabber and her husband (who I've never met before in my life; whats' that about?) I told her I would meet with the Blabber but that I didn't feel it was necessary to meet with her husband because he was not involved in any way; that would be like me bringing MY husband into this. I really feel this woman thrives on drama, and wants to involve as many people as possible. Apparently the Blabber now says that I have breached confidentiality within the church because my coworker was her family's "outreach project" (apparently so are all the other coworkers) and she is upset that I went back and told her all the nasty things she said about her. So why did she act like a friend to this girl's face, then talk smack about her behind her back & tell us all that she was being intimidated by her? I'm very confused.

So, my husband came home, and I told him the latest... that I have a lynching scheduled tomorrow with our 2 childrens church staff and with Blabber and her husband. He said, "I wouldn't do it", which is the same thing my friend Susan said to me. I contacted the staff member who called me, and I said, "My husband doesn't want me to do this", and she said, "That's fine, we can cancel the meeting if you want, but I encourage you to resolve this now". I am really unsure what to do. I can't deny that I did get angry and shared with my coworker what the Blabber said, but that was after Blabber didn't accept my apology and deleted me from facebook. I don't know why I was so hurt by that, but I was! So, I need to let her know what I'm going to do by tonight... Should I meet with them and say my peace? I'll admit that I made a mistake by getting angry and sharing the other things that Blabber said, but that I didn't realize my coworker (aka my friend) was her personal "outreach project". I never got the whole picture on that. I just thought she was a new lady stirring up some drama. 

I'm sure that was really hard to follow! Characters for this story are 1. Blabber-new lady that started working with us about 6 months ago, 2. Coworker- a girl I've worked with for 4 years now and never had a problem with until Blabber came into the picture, and 3. In-my-face-friend- I've been friends w/ her for several years now but she's got a reputation for being a gossip and no one likes her. She has ticked me off in the past, I confronted her about it, and we made up and moved on. She has "no couth" as people say.
As a Christian, I feel as though I did the right thing in the beginning by apologizing. But I know I didn't do the right thing acting out of anger and discussing the other things that were shared. I have different positions on this. First, the coworker is my friend, and I usually do tell my friends when ppl are saying unkind things about them. Second, I'm a counselor for a living- Coworker came to me for help and advice, and much of the info shared came out in a conversation between us in which she assured me she wouldn't blab to blabber. But she got angry and cussed Blabber out. Third, Blabber has never shared with me what her relationship was with my coworker. Had someone filled me in that she was trying to do an outreach, I might've better understood. I was never let in on what was going on. I thought she was being a friend to her face, but talking about her behind her back.

I am so unsure as to what to do and I've been praying about it. God knows my heart, and that I would not hurt anyone purposely. Any suggestions are welcome.