Winter Smoothie

As the days grow shorter and the weather gets colder, getting out of the bed in the morning can be tough. The past few days it's been so dark here from the pouring rain that it isn't even clear that morning has arrived.

With that cold dark start to the day, staring down the barrel of a Glowing Green Smoothie doesn't have quite the same appeal as on a warm sunny summer day. Kimberly offers a variety of greens depending on the season so you can "winterize" it, but for me... some days it's just not quite the right thing. I'd much prefer a warm bowl of oatmeal but never feel hungry enough for that first thing.

However, I have another option and it's a pretty good one. I am still new when it comes to all of this online stuff, but my sister invited me to check out her Pinterest page. Still no idea how it works but I saw this photo and I knew I had to try it.

Does that look amazing or what? It's called a Winter Smoothie and it's dead simple to make.

Winter Smoothie Recipe

1/2 cup of milk
3/4 cup of yogurt
an apple
a banana
5 almonds 
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Throw it in the blender and voila, it's like cinnamon oatmeal in a glass... almost. For those of us that don't have time for a meal or don't particularly like to eat first thing in the morning, this smoothie is brilliant.

A couple of things...

If you don't do dairy, I'd say use almond milk or the dairy alternative of your choice, but double it to a full cup. Then add a table spoon or so of Chia seeds, that should thicken it up nicely for you so you get the same lovely thick milk-shakey quality that this smoothie provides.

I'd also suggest going easy on the cinnamon, for me a 1/2 tsp was way too much. When I made it a second time, just a sprinkle was enough.

You can also alter it slightly with a fruity yogurt. I made one with strawberry yogurt and it was absolutely divine.

I can't wait to make this for my mom. She doesn't have much of an appetite at the moment so it just may do the trick. It also keeps you more full than the GGS, could be the extra protein, so it's terrific on those busy days when you don't have time to snack between meals. I wish I knew who's recipe it was so I could fully sing their praises, but whoever you are? You're the new Goddess of Smooth! Thank you.

Enjoy and have a great weekend.
Shan

 

 

Let's Eat!

Is it just me, or has anyone else been wondering what in the hell happened to November? Seems like we've spent the month rushing from one catastrophe to the next with a big old holiday stuck right in the middle. 

Wanted to thank all of you once again for your generous thoughts, prayers and kind comments for my Mom. I am flying home on Tuesday to hopefully help her transition from the hospital home. And if she's still in hospital, perhaps I can relieve some of the stress for my sister and my dad, they have been by her side since she literally broke her head. So grateful they could be there.

I know that whenever I'm stressed I eat. Food has always been a source of comfort and joy, fitting since we're moving into the season of comfort and joy. Since cutting sugar and sweets out of my daily diet, it's been hard to gain any real satisfaction from food because sweets were always my go-to food group. In fact, night before last I was in a particularly rotten mood and I thought, Right! That's it. I need sugar.  

Funny, he who shall not be named is very supportive and had sort of taken on the role of my sugar sponsor, simply said "It's about time you had some sugar!" 

Whaaaaat?!

This is where the story gets interesting. Suddenly the gates where open and I could have anything I wanted. Anything. But what would that be? I mean seriously it's been more than four months without a thing! I wanted to be cautious, didn't want to trigger a binge, but I just really needed something.

You can see my mind at work here, right? Giving all the lists of things I'd been missing, while warning me that I was being very bad. It was both the devil and the angel and it was driving me mental.

So I decided to have something moderate. Something that had sugar in it, would taste sweet enough to satisfy that craving, but hopefully not push me over the edge. I chose banana bread from Starbucks. Have I mentioned recently how much I love Starbucks?! And I also now have a secret friend who might even love Starbucks almost as much as me....Tres cool....and there is a Starbucks on the main floor of the hospital my mom's in. No I am not going home to her just so I can be closer to Starbucks! Shame on you for even thinking it! It doesn't hurt though, does it? LOL, but I digress.

My beloved and I headed out into the night on a mission. We had the dog with us so I'd have a reason not to enter the building and drool all over the glass case and possibly change my mind at the last minute to a cake pop... or an espresso brownie... or one of their divine cookies, Starbucks makes the best cookies! 

It was banana bread or bust!

In he marched in and too quickly returned with the report that they were out of banana bread. Fuck socks! They had coffee cake or banana muffins with chocolate chips or how about one of those little caramel squares or my other fave the petite French cakes - Omigod I love those! No! I made the exception for banana bread and if they didn't have it, I was having nothing. Wow, who knew I had it in me? 

He who shall not be named came out a few minutes later with a decaf non-fat no-whip mocha. I love that man.

Since then I have given a lot of thought to how I am going to cope with the holidays, especially since they are going to be a little more stressful than usual around ours. A while back my girl Tammy provided me with an amazing link for sugar free no-bake cookies and brownies. Yes you read that right, sugar-free no-bake cookies and brownies. Healthy treats that you don't even have to wait to take out of the oven! 

So I decided to try the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies. Emily Segal, the person who came up with these cookies and brownies and first wrote about it did a much much better job than I ever could so here is a link to her site. She is absolutely amazing and I'm her newest fan. Thanks for sharing her with me Tammy. You're the best!

But in the interest of convenience, here's the recipe.

Raw Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• dash sea salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter (OK to leave out to make nut-free)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Put oats and salt in food processor.
2. Process until finely ground.
3. Add remaining ingredients and process until fully combined.
4. Add a few drops of water if needed to form balls.
5. Form into balls or press into a square pan and cut into squares.

And voila, you have treats that you can actually eat worry free.

mine are not as finely ground as Emily's

And Emily's right, there is something about them that doesn't seem to trigger that -- must eat every last cookie -- zombie response that normally happens.

Something else you can do with this recipe is actually turn it into a pie crust.

My favorite celebrity nutritionist Kimberly Snyder has a beautiful recipe for Raw Pecan Love Pie  that has a crust very similar to this, however if you were going to do much of your baking on the same day, you could double up on the cookie recipe and use that for the pie crust instead. I'm just hopin' to make life easier for everyone. I haven't tried the Pecan Pie yet, but you can bet I'll post it if I do.

A little hesitant to make the raw brownies for fear that the cocoa might trigger mad chocolate cravings but if you decide to make some, lemme know what you think of them.

Who knows, by Christmas I may just unhinge my jaw and be tipping back whole boxes of chocolates one after the other.

For now... trying to stay the course.

Loads of love,
Shan

 
 

 
























Mom, made this for you. Please get better! I love you.
Shan

Update and 2.2.7 Review.

I just want to thank each and every one of you who have been so incredibly supportive and thoughtful this weekend in making prayers and sending good thoughts for my mom.

This just makes my heart swell.

It was created by the lovely Natalia and her children in Barcelona. My mom is still in hospital. Her recovery is slow, but I am so grateful that she is recovering. With head trauma you never know what the long term outcome will be, but thus far she is conscious and responding, most of her mental faculties apprear to be in tact and hopefully any nasty side effects she might experience won't be long term. Fingers crossed.

Your energy has really helped so much. I can't say thanks enough.

In the mean time, I'll tell you that you've got to keep busy to keep from constant worry and Maria has definitely helped me to do that on Level 7 of Continuity 2.2.

I have been blown away by the content in this three month series, it's my utmost favorite since the entire Metamorphosis series. But there's always one... There's always a level that gets you and that you don't love and level 7 is that one.

Let me put it to you another way. Level 6 with Stacey involved working out with the pink ball and you all know how I feel about that ball, right? I'd take that workout over this one any day of the week!

It is most definitely a glutecentric workout and to all you glutecentric ladies, I do not envy you one bit. These exercises actually hurt. I was on an 8km walk yesterday and everything holding my glutes in place was screaming - from my lower back to my upper glutes, to the sides of my hips to my upper hamstrings. This workout is so not for me. I did muck my way through the whole thing all week, but by the weekend, I'd actually just done the leg series and switched back to level 6 for arms and abs and here's why --

In level 7 the warm up and free arms are performed with wrist weights which I don't mind at all. But once you slip those off and pick up the dumbbells, all bets are off. These are performed on your knees which I never like because I experience knee pain. There are some awkward movements in the hips and torso while the arms are being worked and the whole sequence was uncomfortable for me.

Once we're lying on the mat for abs, Maria is moving so fast that I found I was either being entirely uneffective while trying to keep up or I slowed down to perform the moves with integrity and got lost in the sequence.

As for the weighted leg series, I actually don't mind each leg exercise on its own so much, but when they're put all together, the discomfort in my tiny hip rotators is so bad that it puts pressure on the sciatic nerve and then I am in all kinds of pain. 

I performed level 6 with the ankle weights, but found at the end that I did gain a half inch around each thigh so I've ditched them on this level even though Maria calls for doubled up weights on a couple of the moves. I've taken to performing the legs without the DVD so that I can do them at my own pace and with precision because I thought perhaps I was doing the moves incorrectly and thus causing the pain but the sequence has continued to hurt.

It takes serious stretching to work it out to the point that I'm not entirely convinced that it's worth it. I may see level 8 a day or two early depending on how today's workout goes. But for me, this level will not be one that makes it into my regular rotation in the future. It's only one level out of 7 so it's not a biggie, can't love 'em all and I still think Maria rocks! 

But did I mention she's wearing gold lame? 

Yeah! The Solid Gold Dancers have nothing on her!

All my best,
Shan

My Mama.

Hey guys,
Hope this finds you well this weekend, enjoying time with your friends and families and finding all sorts of things to be grateful for.

I'm writing today because I need a favor from you. No matter what your faith or belief system, no matter where you come from, I'd be awfully grateful if you could take a moment and make a little prayer or send some healing vibes to my Mom.

She was at my niece's soccer game last night when she fainted, cracking her head on the cement floor. She fractured her skull. She has some bleeding on her brain and is being monitored in hospital. My dad and sister are with her.

Sounds scary and it is, but my sis has assured me that they've ruled out all the really big bad stuff and all signs point toward recovery provided the bleeding doesn't worsen and her brain doesn't swell.

I believe that prayers and good thoughts help. Her name is Teddi.



Thanks a million.
xo
Shan 

Best App Ever!

Hey guys!

It is shocking! Just shocking to me how far behind I am where technology is concerned. I'm sure it was more than a year ago you all were telling me about these great diet tracker apps on your phones and I was like, nah, I have a nifty little journal to track my food choices.

Pft, journal! What?
 
Then a few months ago, I was like, hey... found this awesome online program to keep track of my calories and stuff... and again you all were like "yeah, but we already use this handy dandy app on our phones", then I was like yeah but I don't have one of those phones. Duh.

How is it that talking about technology has suddenly made me sound like I'm fifteen? "yeah but" and "like okay but". Insert an image of me rolling my eyes. I can't help it, I'm so excited about this! Feel free to read the post and then comment "like Shan, we totally told you so." (and now we're valley girls, what was in that glowing green smoothie this morning anyway?)

So I've just downloaded this new app called Lose it! 

Love it! It's the best app ever! Yes it lets you keep track of calories and it lets you keep track of what exercise you've done, but it does so much more! First of all, the foods have cool little pictures beside them (I have got to get out more, seriously) and when you add in your own food, for example the Glowing Green Smoothie, you can add a little picture of veggies next to it, so cute! But that's not the best part of adding new foods.

Check it...

Say you're going to have a yogurt or a veggie burger and you can't be bothered to add in all the details because perhaps you've gone through all that with your old dinosaur online program... oh, was that just me? This thing has a scanner! You can actually scan the barcode of that food! Tres cool! Okay there is no barcode on a Glowing Green Smoothie, but still. Fun times ladies. I felt like a check out girl at the supermarket or like the calorie police or something. (Seriously, maybe I should have my head examined.)

Furthermore, it has a place where you input your current weight and whether you want to maintain it or lose it and how much, then it gives you the option of how long you'd like to take to lose it. It then gives you a target number of calories to strive for along with a cool bar graph thing that lets you see in an instant how you're doing for the day! Look!

Cool, right? Brilliant! The best. Did I mention that I love it?

I've only had it a couple of days but I already adore it because when I stepped on the scale this morning, it told me that I lost a pound! In a recent post I was grumpy because since I'd had a rough... let's just call it "November sucked so far" that all I wanted was sugar so I ate EVERYTHING else in sight and gained two pounds? Remember that? Well now I am exactly a pound away from my happy maintenance weight and I think it's because Lose it! helped me. 

Have I also mentioned lately how much I love my little iPhone? And Instagram? So fun. If technology's aim is to make Zombies of all of us, I have just been bitten.

Let the good times roll. Umm, sadly I don't think the app is available in the UK as my girl Janice tried to get it and couldn't. Perhaps there is a European equivalent I dunno. Anyway, love you.

xo
Shan

This Thanksgiving, it's okay to LOSE it!

Hello Lovelies,
Is it Thursday already? Crap, how did that happen? Well Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for this year? I bet all the plump little turkeys that have escaped the axe are grateful for vegetarians!

 
Even I have to admit that looks delicious (for a dead bird and all).

So here's the thing. We've heard it all before right? Between every drink, sip a glass of water, or choose dessert or booze, not both. Load up on the protein and go easy on the carbs. PORTION CONTROL! Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda!

It couldn't get any clearer so why then, year after year, do we find ourselves pigging out and having to loosen the old belt?? Is it really going to come down to having to wear this???

I have got to get me one of these! ha ha ha.

Or will we all end up wearing this?

 
Lordissa I hope not!

Seriously, I think I may have found a strategy that is almost viable this year and it means that you can take as many trips to the cheese tray as you'd like (on the day, not every day ladies, come on, this ain't no utopia it's real life!) This can even count as one of our weekly Body Challenges! Been a while since we've had one of those.

As you may or may not know, I have been working my butt off to cultivate some sort of balance in my life diet-wise and one of the many tools in my little box of tricks is keeping track of calories. No! I am not going to ask you to count calories this weekend, that would just be mean. I use an online source that allows me to see how much I am actually consuming, but what they also offer are great articles that are relevant to weight loss and maintenance and yesterday I came across a real winner. It's actually rather genius.

It's was written by a guy called Ryan Barnhart MS PES (I don't know what those letters behind his name mean but I assume that they make him some kind of expert) and here's what he had to say. 

Elite athletes often consume high-calorie, high-carbohydrate meals in order to prepare themselves for the mass amount of exertion that will occur in their chosen sport. 

The same applies to the Thanksgiving meal. In order to maximize the expenditure of all the calorie energy you'll take in on Thursday, plan for a long, intense, demanding workout on Friday or Saturday.

The ideal workout that will help you burn off the Thanksgiving dinner will be something that follows these guidelines:

1. It's an intensive cardiovascular workout.
2. It incorporates some kind of strength training (put that protein to work).
3. It will last approximately 60 to 90 minutes in endurance.

In general, these three principals will help you create a workout to counter your big meal.

Genius right?

So let's take a closer look.
1) it's an intensive cardiovascular workout - ahem, Dance Cardio anyone? Oh suck it up, it's just one day!
2) it will incorporate some kind of strength training - let me see... what requires a lot of strength and uses the whole body? Oh! I know? Muscular Structure work!
3) it will last approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Why not play it safe and make it 90? 45 minutes of cardio, 45 minutes on the mat. We can totally do that.

So your mission this Thanksgiving weekend, should you choose to accept it is... make a 45 minute playlist of your absolute favoritest upbeat dancey tunes and get set to - burn baby burn - those calories off (you were singing it, I know you were) and add a little extra to your mat work. Pick your favorite thing. Do you love the arms? Add an arm sequence from youTube. Is it the standing abs you love? Stacey has a great routine on Tracy's member's website. Or if you can't be asked to add anything new, why not simply do more reps on each leg movement!

It will be a power house 90 minute workout that we'll call the Eraser! Now go on, get! Enjoy that scrumptious meal, have a drink or two, you even have my blessing to enjoy that pumpkin pie!

Oh and by the way, Maria must have heard that I thought Stacey was the tougher drill sergeant because she's pulled out all the stops on 2.2 Level 7. My entire body hurts. Hope to whip up a review on that for you this weekend.

Have a lovely thanksgiving and remember to try and find something to be grateful for when your family or the inlaws are driving you mental!
Big hugs,
Shan  

Milestones.

Hey guys,
Happy Thanksgiving week to our Americans. You all looking forward to a short week this week? Who's having a big dinner? Who's worried about pigging out? Who's looking forward to pigging out? He he he.

If you're wanting to celebrate with your friends and families but are worried about too many calories or having to loosen your belts, check out this awesome post by Kimberly Snyder. She's provided some healthier options if you want to try something a little different while still keeping it traditional.

Also remember that balance doesn't have to happen during the course of a single day. When we're working on maintenance we can use an entire week to balance out the scales. Tracy has reminded us during past holiday seasons that there are tricks we can use to help out. During these few days leading up to the long weekend, why not try to sneak in some extra cardio? If that's not an option, time can be tight this time of year, perhaps noshing on veggies and salads and lean proteins a few days before will allow for the little extras when the clan gets together. Try to think "big picture" as we kick off the holiday season and let's have this one be our most successful yet.

So the title of this post is Milestones.

Recently I've been sort of missing the girl I used to be. In my twenties I was adventurous, perhaps reckless to the point of near endangerment, and I never shied away from a challenge. When you're young you don't realize the gravity of the consequences that your actions may generate. You feel fear but you do it anyway. You follow your passions with your entire being because the world is ripe with possibilities. They say that ignorance is bliss and "they" are right.

As we grow older, things change for reasons too numerous to name within a single post and we find we may not be the same free spirit with unlimited optimism. Some of that naivete wears off. But we gain other things. We have the benefit of the experience and knowledge that we've gleaned along the way and we're able to celebrate the milestones in a life well lived. 

And today is one such day for me. A first. And at my age, firsts can be hard to come by. Today I can check off another 30 days on my calendar for a total of 120 days sugar free. I had never managed anything beyond 90 days so it's a record. This past 30 days has been the hardest by far. I have struggled daily with this choice to go without sweets. Have been tempted, have debated and argued with myself and have experienced a well of emotions around it. I guess when you use anything to stuff your feelings down (isn't that why we overeat? Drink? Smoke? Use Drugs? Etc) when the crutch is gone, eventually things bubble up. In any case, I am still here. Still fighting to remain sugar free as shaky as the ground beneath my feet feels on some days, I know I can do this. In the same way I was able to tick off 90 days on Metamorphosis, round the corner of two years on the Method with Continuity, and after ten years, finally have a film produced.

I did it because I believed that I could and also because I have had the amazing support of 'he who shall not be named', of close friends and family, and because of you! Every single one of you amazingly beautiful, insightful and noble readers. Being that it's Thanksgiving again, it's a good time to remind you of how grateful I am for every single one of you. You know, every so often I get a comment that moves me to my very core. When that happens I print it out and paste it into a little card that I carry around with me. You all give me so much more strength and purpose that you can ever imagine. So thank you.

With that, I want to share something. A fellow blogger, the awesome and very dear Little Miss Martie over at Spunkyrella has done something pretty cool. She's teamed up with yet another blogger to create a special giveaway for her readers and I wanted to share it with you.

Pop over and check it out here.

And remember, as we get older, we may lose some of our shiny "whole world is my oyster" glow, but what we gain in return... the friendships, the memories, the skills and abilities, that feeling of empowerment that comes with accomplishment... well it's invaluable. I hope you take a moment or two this weekend and in the coming month to find something not just in your life, but something in yourself to genuinely appreciate and be grateful for!

I'm finally done with Stacey and level 6 and am looking forward to working with Maria on level 7. She looks like she is getting very serious in this level with wrist weights during the warm up and double the weights on the working leg. Eeeeep! Wish me luck.

Big hugs,
Shan

Survivor Bars - The Maintenance Series

At the risk of sounding totally redundant, it's been a rough coupla weeks! Halloween triggered crazy cravings followed by intense PMS, depression, anger, confusion, exhaustion. Today is the first day in ages that I feel like I've come into some sort of balance. Whew.

In these two weeks I have managed to put on a pound a week so am feeling a wee bit puffy and what I like to call un-good. But my mantra has been: Don't bail on the big picture. I understand that PMS always brings with it water weight and the sugar cravings led to eating copious amounts of everything else, and that's perfectly okay. My awareness of it means that I haven't jumped on the runaway train.

That's the difference between losing it and maintaining it. When you're trying to lose it, it can feel like one bad day has sabotaged weeks of good intentions, whereas during maintenance one bad day, or in my case, two rough weeks, are merely a bump in the endless road of life.

My girl Tricia put out a gentle reminder recently which we then passed on to our lovely Jah, the power of these four little words; I don't eat that.

With American Thanksgiving less than a week away, which for many of us is the official kick off to the holiday season, I wanted us to be armed with some effective weapons that will help us fight back against the Weapons of Ass Destruction that can be the parties, the buffet tables, the family get togethers and beautiful boxed chocolates, cookies and huge dinners of this time of year.

I have found that the most effective first line of defense here are those four little words; I don't eat that. But like any good defense you are going to need backup! Wouldn't it be nice to arm yourself with things that you can eat? I mean for me it's not enough to eat a salad before the party, because once there, my resolve goes out the window. Drinking more water? Sure, but once that lovely wine buzz kicks in, the water is left by the way side. Faced with our every temptation and being tipsy is a deadly combo and when repeated weekend after weekend, party after reception after family dinner, you really can wind up with weight to shed instead of a weight you're happy to maintain. So I wanted to share with you a recipe that I found through our local farmer's market that is aptly titled Survivor Bars. These little puppies just may help us survive the holidays in tact.

I don't know about you, but when I want sugar, a carrot stick just ain't gonna cut it. But since sugar is no longer an option because "I don't eat that", I need a sweet-ish alternative that will take the edge off but won't send me careening down the mountain side like a bad gateway drug.

These bars are loaded, nutritionally speaking, and they're made without sugar. Plus they will be the easiest thing you make this entire season, I swear.

Survivor Bars

Ingredients
1 cup of gluten free puffed rice
(I like puffed Millet so that's what I use)

1/2 cup cranberries
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut
and 
1/4 cup each of
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Sesame seeds

Mix together in a bowl.

Isn't it pretty?

 
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown rice syrup
(I use a little less because it tastes pretty sweet after being off sugar, but you need enough to make it all stick together)

Directions.
Warm your peanut butter and brown rice syrup together in a pan on medium to low heat until it blends together smoothly.
Add it to the mixed dry ingredients, and then press into a baking pan and refrigerate.
Once cool, cut into squares and serve. 

It looks sort of Christmassy with the red berries and green pumpkin seeds and in the above picture I also crumbled in a small handful of bran cereal for an extra fiber kick.

What's so great about these, other than they are a delightful snack on a long hike, is that they are actually good for you.

Here is what Alicia Silverstone has to say about Brown Rice Syrup in her book, The Kind Diet:
It brings the blood sugar up with out sending it crashing down. Brown rice syrup is made from brown rice cooked with special enzymes until it breaks down into a liquid. Because it is made up of more complex carbs, brown rice syrup delivers a mellow, gentle, yet complete sweet taste.

And I like it because it doesn't taste weird. I cannot do stevia, sorry! Bleck.
 
Sesame seeds are rich in calcium, good for your bones and your over-all nervous system, pumpkin seeds are packed with iron and sunflower seeds contain vitamin B1 and B5, vitamin E, folate, and a healthy dose of copper, magnesium, selenium and phosphorous.

You can even feel free to change it up by adding flax seeds rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, or almonds which are loaded with vitamin E and are a great source of protein.

The bottom line here is that we can enjoy the holidays with our friends and families and not feel one bit deprived. Plus when we show up with a tray of yummy snacks, no one has to know they're actually good for us!

Have a great weekend!
Shan

Festival of Lights!

Today is a special day. It's not only the scorpio new moon with a total solar eclipse, it's also Deepavali, the festival of lights. 

This time of year for me feels so drab, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. The heavy cloud cover and shortening days can feel a little depressing. So knowing that somewhere in the world, people are setting off fireworks and lighting oil lamps and candles makes things feel a little brighter.

My wish for all of us today is; may a little more light shine down upon each of us.

In other news, 'he who shall not be named' and I went for our weekend hike, and as usual we chose a trail that we'd never taken before. It was meant to be an 8km journey traversing two canyons on one of our nearby mountains. Not a biggie, we had supplies, a map, and written directions. However... either we were totally off our game or some landmarks had changed. Whatever the reason, we got lost on three occasions. The first time I was a little concerned because nothing in the environment looked like it was supposed to. We were meant to be heading up river and either the river was flowing the wrong direction... or we were lost. Gulp. 

The second time, we were supposed to be only ten minutes from where we started, but instead were climbing up an incredibly steep incline and I got a fit of giggles. Ever try to climb and laugh at the same time? Both require a lot of core strength and I'm sorry but Stacey, the level 2.2.6 oblique tweaker... the ab stabber... made it painful for me to even breathe into my abs let alone laugh or climb or do all three.

By the third wrong turn, we ended up on a road in the MFN (that's middle of fucking nowhere for those who need the translation) and by that point I was cold, wet and miserable and the catch phrase for the afternoon became "ten minutes from where we started, my ass!" The only thing worse than getting lost three times, is getting lost the last two times when you are supposed to only be ten minutes from your final destination and you wind up being more than 90 minutes out!

No worries, we eventually found our way back and I am here in my home office able to share the experience with you.

So check this...

During one of our wrong turns, we wound up next to a river. This river.

It was a happy accident, but that's not the coolest part. The coolest part is what I discovered upon one of the river rocks.

I called them Pledge Rocks on Instagram (for lack of a better term) but written on the little rocks in all different hand writing were things like: carpe diem, eat more organic, drop 31 lbs, and muscle up. I have never wished I'd had a sharpie in my pocket more than at that moment. If I knew how I'd gotten there I'd go back next week with said sharpie and make a pledge of my own. It was really quite beautiful.

It got me thinking about what I should be committing to next. If you could, what would you pledge? Perhaps each of us should go out and find our own rocks and write something on them in permanent marker to gently remind us of a goal we'd like to achieve as we inch ever closer to the end of 2012. No time like the present to make a new resolution, right?

As one of those rocks says... carpe diem!
Cheers,
Shan

A New Day! 2.2.6 Review.

TGIF, Right? Usually Friday is the day that ends the week and kicks off the weekend, but today, this Friday feels like a new beginning. It's been a tough week for reasons I won't go into but lemme tell you that by yesterday my happy cart was off the rails. I wrote a post about what a bad mood I was in and how pretty much everything on the planet sucked (okay it wasn't quite that bad, but almost) and hit publish... then I went... hang on a minute! Do I really want to dump all of that out into the world? Nosirree I did not. No more public pity parties dammit. And lets add in a 'no asshole' policy for good measure shall we? I was kind of a jerk yesterday.

Nothing has changed in my life between yesterday and today, I just gave myself a serious attitude adjustment and here we are, the stupid cup is half full, okay?! Happy?! Lol. And also I started level 2.2.6 yesterday. Whoa.

In Continuity 2.2.6, I'll tell you what. Stacey strikes again!

Oh sure, she looks so cute and innocent here, but don't let her angelic smile and thumbs up fool you, she is vicious on the mat I tell you! Vicious! But just look at her. Don't you want to look like Stacey too? I know I sure do, with her killer gams, her tiny waist and flat as a pancake tummy, and don't even get me started on how toned her arms are, are you kidding me? Wow.

So for whatever reason, I find Stacey's workouts so much harder than Maria's. Don't know why. I am sweating and struggling to keep up with Maria through the burn, but Stacey just kills me. (I'll miss you for the next ten days, Maria) But in the mean time, Stacey is the new goddess in town.

So my girl Tricia, a brilliant, beautiful and noble blog reader, always seems to share these little insights and tips that come along at exactly the right time for me so I want to share her latest with you in case you don't always have a chance to read all of the excellent comments that come in. Tricia is my Sage and some day, she and I and as many of you as we can pack around a table are going to break bread together. I cannot wait, but until then, here's something fascinating that she shared the other day:

I am just so amazed at the level of moves that are in 2.2.2. Its hard to get through all 30 reps with the weights. I just read that using light weights with a lot of reps builds muscle endurance, where heavier weights and less reps builds strength and bulk. You know, I have noticed the endurance in my muscles, I can climb stairs effortlessly, hike up mountains without getting tired, lift bags of groceries and my muscles don't tire.... dancers have this too!

Now I have been doing all of these levels up till yesterday (thanks, T) without the 'benefit' of ankle weights. My fear was bulking. Now I realize that I should have just bloody trusted Tracy as always, but you know me, I have to do things my own way... usually the hard way I might add. But Tricia really gave me food for thought.  I've been doing a lot of hiking since I came back from Toronto a month ago and it hasn't been so effortless, in fact it's been down right difficult.

I sat down and watched the level through. Of course it looks tough, but it seemed doable, for a Stacey level anyway, so I decided to give it a go with the weights.

Mine are lighter than normal on account of them being wrist weights, they're only 1lb each. Remember these little darlings?

 
I dug em out and dusted em off and wow. OW. It was so hard. Add to that Bitch brought the BALL back and well... you can imagine how the workout went. Sorry Stacey, I really and truly do love you girl, you are amazing and such an inspiration and if there was a generation of little boys who wanted to grow up to "be Like Mike" I am a generation of one who wants to "be like Stacey".

So allow me to actually review the dang workout already. Sheesh. Attitude adjustment, my ass! 

As you've probably deduced, level 6 of Continuity 2.2 has reintroduced the lovely (gag) pink ball. Yippee.

The warm-up in this series has got to be one of my favorites. It's challenging as all get, but I found that I was actually able to follow along. The free arms on this are the best of the entire set so far. I really enjoyed doing them and I felt the burn. The weighted arms are equally great. In fact, they manage to introduce a few new moves and angles that we have not yet done. Can you imagine? Just when you thought we'd done it all.

The floor abs are good, but they are really just a warm up for what's to come because in this leg series, they go after your abs in a big big way. Let's just say it hurts to laugh today, and breathing hurts a little bit too, I won't lie, she kicked my butt.

The leg series contains only five moves but believe me, you'll be thankful there isn't a sixth because the last two are abs and legs in a pike series and an oblique-type straight leg crunch. You really have to see that one. She even manages to use the ball! I did say vicious, right? I mean you got that, right? VI-CIOUS.

While the first two moves in the leg sequence look really complicated, once you get the rhythm of the move, they're actually okay to do and do you ever feel it. How these girls can pull these moves off with ankle weights AND sneakers is beyond me, I'm a barefoot girl with no weights generally. My legs were on fire. They have also brought back an old fave (not) where you are asked to balance on your knee so your calf points up and your foot in in the air. Even with a pillow I find that one hard. So there isn't a moment during this 30-something minute workout that you are not working hard.

But I'll tell you something else, I didn't regret doing it once I was finished and in fact I am determined to get up to full reps using the weights by day ten, because I want to look like Stacey!

Have a great weekend, y'all. And let's get back to our Maintenance Series next week, shall we? I know American Thanksgiving is closing in fast.

xo
Shan
 

Could Not Resist!

 

POTUS.

I am not American. I did not have an opportunity to vote in the American election yesterday. But if I had that chance, I would have. And I would have been in the majority! Way to go America, you make me proud to be your neighbor.

Never had I been more invested in your election than I was four years ago when Barak Obama ran for President the first time... that is until this election. I really wanted him to win again!

You are going to think that this is silly but I am going to go ahead and say it anyway. I have always loved Obama, my dog, who turned 4 on September 11th would have been named Obama instead of Rama if I had my own way. Barak Obama is the first and only politician that I trust and believe in and I really didn't think I could like him any more than I already do until I heard his speech.

Near the end he says "It doesn't matter if you're black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or NATIVE AMERICAN!" He remembered us. We are always and forever without fail, forgotten. But last night, the POTUS remembered. I cried. Silly, I know, but it meant something.

Hell Bush bloody forgot the entirety of Canada when he was thanking nations for their support after 911. He overlooked our whole country. We remember things like that you know.

So three cheers to you America, for voting for this incredible president. Proud of you.

Cheers,
Shan

A New Fave

From the beginning of this new year (2012) I made a commitment to replace all household and beauty products with cruelty-free products as they got used up. As such, the fragrance that I've been wearing for years has not been replaced.

My sense of smell is very strong and consequently very particular. It was a real challenge for me to find a fragrance that I loved and that didn't go haywire with my funky chemistry. The perfume that I'd chosen all those years ago became my fragrance. I loved it, felt like a goddess wearing it, and without fail someone always complimented it. How do you replace something like that? 

The short answer is you don't. Sometimes you cannot replace these things. So for months I have gone fragrance free. Funny what doing that then does to a sensitive nose. It's made me hyper-aware of the perfumes on everyone around me and sometimes it can be quite nauseating.

Recently I read a post on GOOP called GO - Brooklyn. In GP's GO series, she writes up a new city and shares her favorite places to stay, eat, shop etc. and in this particular post, I discovered I Hate Perfume. Wow, what?!

Check it...

A plethora of scents are sold in this perfume gallery, ranging from the usual flowery ones to the very distinct, and sometimes strange - "Cucumber Sandwich," "Wet Pavement," and "Dust" to name just a few. The nose behind this alchemist's shop is an ex-taxi driver, inspired to become a perfumer by his hatred for the some of the horrible scents worn by women getting into his car in the evening, that would linger and make him sick. 

I so get what he means. But since I have no plans to travel to Brooklyn to be able to check out his scents, I Hate Perfume was not an option for me. However, it got me thinking, why not check out some au natural types of fragrances?

I tried the Body Shop, Bathworks and Lush, but most of the stuff I encountered either smelled like candy, not a good thing when you're trying to lay off the sugar, or were just so overpowering they made me gag.

Then just last weekend, I popped into my local health food shop for some vitamins and they had a tiny rack of perfume samples at the cash desk. Hmm. It was a brand I recognized called Pacifica. I'd used their soap in the past and it was gorgeous. Who knew they made perfume? Clearly not me, but I don't get out much. As I read the fragrance labels I came across French Lilac. Mmm, lilacs are my all time favorite flower in the entire world... but do I really want to smell like one? I seriously doubt it. And could a soap company really duplicate the smell of this precious flower? Again, I seriously doubt it. But I removed the cap and gave it a whiff. OMG, it was like being in my parents' back garden then the lilac bush was in full bloom. No kidding.

I was transported!

But still, who wants to walk around smelling like a flower? In spite of my better judgement, I daubed a little on my wrist and left the store. To my shock and surprise, a couple of hours later, he who shall not be named, asked if I had some kinda drug on my wrist because I'd been smelling it like a junkie all afternoon. Wow, really? I sniffed again, so I was. The fragrance was intoxicating and it didn't turn once it had mixed with my chemistry. I was sold. I'd planned to pick some up on my next visit.

Later that day, I popped into Whole Foods and guess what I saw on the shelf? Yep, Pacifica French Lilac Perfume. Sold!

And it's just a mere fraction of the cost of my old perfume. But the absolute best part is that Pacifica has made this with 100% vegan ingredients, not a single animal ingredient and they do not test on animals. How great is that?

Who knows what will happen come summer? I may become a bee magnet or a new best friend to a humming bird, but for now, this girl is happy to have a new smell to call her own. And if ever the opportunity presents itself, I will visit I Hate Perfume and may just find myself walking around smelling like Burning Leaves. Why not? I've always loved the way my hair smells after I've been sitting by the campfire.

Cheers,
Shan 

Oh and PS, check out some of my Instagram pics here.
xo

Continuity 2.2.5 Maria.

Tell you what ladies, it's been one helluva hard week for staying away from the sugar. Talk about triggers and gateway foods and all of that. Add a little stress, rejection and a heap of disappointment... well you get the idea. If you're confused, have a peak at my last post. I was a mess.

I did manage to get through it without having candy or cake, but there was wine... there is plenty of sugar in wine... and the wine only served to make the cravings that much worse. Epic let down. Yesterday was no easier but today I feel as though I might be getting back to some semblence of normal. But you'd think that after more than three months of this "new" lifestyle, my demons would have the decency to be a little quieter. Can't wait to see what Christmas with the family has in store. Kill me now. Don't get me wrong, I love love love my family and to be together for Christmas after several years apart will be absolutely a dream come true and I am so looking forward to it. But Christmas at our house has always been about the decadent boxes of chocolates, several varieties of homemade cookies and tarts and cake. That's for another day and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

But, as we launch into November, I can't help but think that it's this time of year that derails my progress. Without fail, the exercise starts to slide to the back burner, the rules about what to eat get a little lax, then come January I'm looking for a quick fix or cure to get the extra ten pounds off. Not this year, sister! Want to know why? Because for starters I am OFF the sugar and that's sticking, no negotiation, and because I have Continuity 2.2 to back me up all the way to Christmas.

I started level 5 with Maria this week and the first day in was super hard. The fact that I followed it with a 15km hike did not help matters one bit. I thought it might take a week to be able to walk again, but surprisingly my recovery was super quick and I was back to the workout the very next day!

I get that I flipflop all over the place thinking Tracy is the best and that I couldn't possibly workout with anyone but her, then I am all about Stacey... I'm sorry guys... I think I've put in enough time now that I can safely say... I absolutely, unequivocally adore Maria. She really is my favorite. She is. She's so great. I'd love to meet her in person some day to tell her just that.

She's the coolest. She's a joy to workout with because she's always smiling, her voice is enthusiastic and excited to be leading you through each move. Her descriptions are articulate, her execution of the moves is flawless and her energy seems endless. She even says things like "this is one of my favorite moves" and suddenly you find yourself wanting that move to be your favorite too, even though it's the hardest damned move in the sequence.

Level five has a terrific warmup, it's quite aerobic in fact, so your heart rate gets up there a little bit. The arms and abs are on par with what we've seen so far in level 2.2 but she steps up our game when it comes to legs by not only adding ankle weights (which I don't use, but they're there if you want them) but incorporating weighted arm choreography in the sequence. 

For example, in one move, your non-working leg is kneeling on the chair, the chair back to the side of you to hold, your working leg stands on the floor as you dip a dumb bell to the floor just in front of the chair. You then bend the elbow up to the ceiling and straighten the arm out to the side at shoulder height as you swing that working leg off the ground and straight back behind you in arabesque. 

One thing with this level, Maria does introduce it as Continuity for Omnicentric so there must be some cross-over between omni and abs, because I am an abcentric girl and my DVD says abcentric on it. All I can say to that is WOW, you Omnicentric girls work really hard!! I love that my whole body was incorporated into this workout. It's difficult, but again, as with previous levels in the 2.2 series, it's not overly complicated.

Level 5 is another one of those levels that I'll definitely come back to if I get bored later on.

Cheers,
Shan