Sally Up

If you're sick of hearing tales of working out, go ahead and skip this post. I won't be offended.

I just have to document my experience with Miss Sally.

I hate her. I really do.

There is a song called Flower by Moby. It's all about bringing some chick named Sally up and down (I have no idea what this means and I hope it's not dirty). This does not bode well for our workouts. Listen to the song, it will make more sense.

Here's a YouTube video showing people in a gym doing what our devil trainer makes us do.

Granted, we are not at the level of holding lots of weight - not yet anyway. The first time we did it, we didn't have any weight and it was absolute murder. Like "I'm about to throw up" hard. The 2nd time, Mike handed me a bar that weighs about 15 lbs. It was so tough, but I made it. Barely.

Well, yesterday, Mike made me hold a 45 lb bar. He's so mean! And, we had to do the stupid Sally song twice. My muscles were so blasted that I couldn't even lift the bar above my head to put it down after the second time. Mike had to come help me. I literally fell to the (gross, disgusting gym) floor when the song ended and felt like crying. I'm such a baby, but it is so hard! (And now, I literally have a bruise on my Quasimodo hump from the stupid bar).

But, I did it and lived to tell about it! I'm so scared about what Sally will bring next time. I might have to squat with all 185 lbs of Mike on my shoulders.

Do you want to know something really crazy? We did Sally squats of our own free will and choice today at work. We took a 4.5 minute break, stepped into the hallway and basically tortured ourselves. We're pretty hard core.

Or just straight up crazy.

Green Goodness

I'm sorry that I've turned into one of those meatheads who only talks about working out and/or nutrition. It's kind of all-consuming right now so please bear with me. It literally is what I think and talk about the most and I'm sure I'm driving my friends, family and co-workers crazy.

But I don't care.

Not really, anyway. So, prior to Monday's weigh-in, Trainer Mike encouraged (told) me to do a juice cleanse. I don't know about you, but that sounds anything but appealing to me. The rest of my team did a cleanse last month (when I was out of town) and they barely made it out alive. So, I compromised with Mike and agreed to do a smoothie cleanse for 2 days. No Jamba Juice or anything super sugary, but homemade smoothies with fun stuff like flax seed and spinach. I figured I would be okay and not get ravishingly hungry because smoothies are more substantial than juice.

I decided to do Dr. Oz's 3-day Cleanse. I think it was meant to be a juice cleanse, but I did it in smoothie form.

So, Saturday morning, I got up and made the breakfast smoothie. It was pretty good but I was absolutely famished by lunch. Jordan agreed to do the cleanse with me. She's such a good sport. We were excited to try the lunch smoothie. It looked really good.

See how excited Jordan was?

Our excitement did not last long.

It was - hands down - the most disgusting thing either of us has ever choked down.

And we both served foreign missions.

It was basically a whole salad in smoothie form. Suuuuper gross.

But, we were determined to be successful so we suffered through. We were literally standing side by side over the kitchen sink trying not to throw up. It was so bad.

We did it! We got it down. Unfortunately, we were sick to our stomachs the whole rest of the day. Within 2 hours I felt sick and hungry at the same time. Not the most pleasant way to spend a Saturday.

By late evening, I was feeling better but wanted pretty much anything besides a smoothie. However, out of fear of the wrath of Mike, I choked down another smoothie. It wasn't so bad because it had more fruit and less celery (actually no vegetables) but I just wanted so badly to chew something. Jordan had given up well before this and abandoned me in my misery. I did cheat a little and had some real food along with the smoothie. I ate 3 smoothies on Sunday and a little food so I could survive and feel at least somewhat normal and I guess it worked out because I won the weigh in.

I don't think I'll ever do another 'cleanse' but I do like smoothies (most of the time) so I am replacing one meal a day with a smoothie and it seems to be going well.

I'm pretty excited that I have completely changed the way I'm eating and it's pretty easy for me now. I, of course, could eat junk food at any moment and be perfectly happy - I don't think that will ever change - but I feel so much better in general. Put good in, get good out.

Today, one of my co-workers Nick (he works in a different department and I don't know him very well) was at Erica's desk raiding her candy dish. All the candy in the dish was from Christmas and no one has touched it in at least 2 months. Nick took a whole hand-full and hung out for a minute to chat. He opened a peppermint patty and popped it in his mouth. In my prior life, I loved peppermint patties and I was quickly reminded of that as I saw the look of pure joy on his face and could smell the deliciousness of mint and dark chocolate.

"You had better walk away before I french kiss you!"

Oh my gosh, did that come out of my mouth? Yes. Yes, it did. I have officially turned into a freak! Not only do I hardly know this guy, but he's married.

So embarrassing.

Results!

Guess who won the month 2 weigh-in?!

Yep! It was me! Hooray!!

It was kind of the perfect storm - at least for me. We have a weigh-in each month for the 3 months of the competition. Last month, I went on a little trip to visit Janae and flew back to Utah the day before the weigh-in. I did what most (cool and normal) people do on vacation and ate a lot of really good food and drank a lot of really good drinks (exclusively Mountain Dew) and probably didn't eat one vegetable the whole 5 days I was gone.

It's okay though. I didn't want to win the 1st weigh-in. The top 5 'Biggest Losers' get prizes - good prizes. However, if you are in the top 5 for the 1st weigh-in, you can't win a prize in the 2nd weigh-in...and the prizes are better in the 2nd weigh-in. So, I ate what I wanted for 5 days, flew back to Utah, drank a lot of water and swung through the McDonald's drive-thru on the way to work. I don't mess around with weigh-ins - that I don't want to win.

I am well aware that any time I fly, I retain water (real-life cankles - sorry if that's TMI). It's just part of who I am and I have accepted it and just make sure I take long pants for the first couple of days of vacation until things get back to normal. I was sure this would work in my favor, but I didn't know just how much. When I stepped on the scale, I was a little sad that I had gained a pound from the first weigh-in. I didn't plan to gain weight, I just didn't want to place. It was a little embarrassing because I was the only person in the whole competition to gain weight. I had worked hard during the month and for sure lost weight pre-vacation but wasn't too happy that I was up a pound at weigh-in time. At least it was just a pound.

The weigh-in was on a Monday and I would like the record to show that by Thursday - 4 little days later, I lost 12 lbs. No joke. Yep, 12 pounds in 4 days. That's some serious water retention. I'm like a freaking camel. Seriously.

Anyhoo, I'm not saying how many pounds I lost by the 2nd weigh-in because then people will be able to figure how much I weigh. (Not quite ready to divulge that information just yet - or maybe ever). But I lost 6.5% of my body weight which is pretty exciting. I'm happy with my progress and hope to lose 12 to 15 more pounds this month, but we'll see. I haven't been too careful for the past 2 days so I have to get back on track.

Everyone in this competition better get used to seeing my name at the top of the winner's list!

The Next Stage

Today is a hard day for my family. My Grandma and Poppa are moving from their home of 54 years and into assisted living. I know it's part of life but it's so very hard. I've been weepy all day. My co-workers think I'm nuts!

Unfortunately for me, they're right more than they're wrong.

(I just noticed that my last post was after a bad day. I promise that a large majority of my days are happy ones!)

My dad emailed us all photos of the final good-byes this morning. I intentionally did not check my email because I didn't want to have a come-apart at work (not that it's never happened, but it has been a while).

However, he also posted the photos on Facebook so tears today were inevitable.

Aren't they so cute?

I know that at my age (27 and holding) that I am lucky to have 3 living grandparents but times like these are still tough. They will live closer to family and will have help with meals and other things so that's good, but it's so hard to say good-bye to their house. So many good memories.

Like the maple tree in the front yard that my dad fell out of as a teenager trying to impress girls that were walking by, countless family dinners, cutting glass with Poppa in the basement and lots of laughter.

Good-bye old house. Thank you for being such a special place.

Tender Mercy

Yesterday was a rough day.

Nothing specifically went wrong but not much went right. I'm still getting over this lovely cold. It's been a long week. I am feeling better but am still achy and super tired. Fridays are really busy at work and 2 of my co-workers took the afternoon off so I got one phone call after another. Not normally a big deal but many of my agents are rude and treat me like dirt. Like I'm not a real person with real feelings. As an underwriter, I get that I'm not going to be everyone's favorite person because it is my job to keep rules and write profitable business (aka not letting them get away with writing crap policies) but it's no excuse for them to be awful to me. It's not usually so bad but I swear every mad agent called me yesterday afternoon.

PLUS, I am starving. Every. Single. Minute. I am trying really hard to make positive life changes in my diet and to exercise everyday. I am discouraged because I'm not seeing the dramatic results I want to see. I have to do something different because eating egg whites and celery is affecting me emotionally. I'm convinced my body was genetically designed to have carbs on a super regular basis.

All of this makes for a really crabby Cali.

I got to take pictures of my good friend Rachelle and her fiance Travis after work, so that was fun, but I was exhausted when we were done. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a DVD at Walmart but didn't get home with it. So frustrating! I didn't think there was any way I could get it. I called customer service and they said that they keep a log of left items and that it was on the log. I just needed to bring my receipt in. Hooray! But, life is busy and I hadn't yet gotten around to it. As I was driving home last night, I decided just to keep going home because I was so tired. Then I thought that maybe there was a time limit and they wouldn't keep the log for too long so I got off the freeway and went to Walmart. I rarely park on the grocery side because it's always super busy, but I had to pick up a couple of food items, so I did. Plus, customer service is closer to that door.

I grabbed the things I needed and the DVD and checked out. Then I headed to customer service. Of course there was a long line. I (impatiently) stood there and when it was my turn I handed the DVD and receipt to the cashier and told him that I had purchased the DVD on the 15th but that it wasn't in my bags when I got home. He looked at me and said very rudely, "You bought this that long ago and are just now coming to claim it?!"


Um, EXCUSE ME?! You don't know my life and it's none of your business!


I was shocked that he was copping an attitude. Plus, I was not in a very cheery mood so I said, "I don't live close to here (not entirely true) and I couldn't get back until now. I'm sorry if this is inconvenient for you but it was your cashier who neglected to put it in my bags, not me." He rudely looked up the log, looked at my receipt, threw the DVD in a bag and handed it to me. I just grabbed it and left. What a jerk.

I walked out of Walmart and into the parking lot. As I made my way across the cross walk, I noticed a couple walking into the store. The man looked so familiar but I couldn't immediately place him. It only took about 5 seconds for me to pass them but as I made my way to my car, I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew him from some place important. Was he in a past ward? Had I inspected his home for work? Was he the dad of one of my friends? I didn't get a good look at his wife, but I knew that I knew him.


I got in my car, started it and backed out of the parking space. How did I know this man? Then, it hit me. He was a member who I had met in my first area of my mission. I was sure of it! Now, you must know that I have the worst memory in the history of the world. I am okay with faces, but not super great - especially after a lot of time has passed. I was in my first area 14 years ago! I don't remember anything from 14 years ago. AND this man and his wife live in the Canary Islands, Spain.
5,431 miles from Utah.

I just had to know. What did I have to lose? I was sure to never see them again if they weren't the people I thought they were so I decided just to go for it. Plus, my day couldn't get any worse, right? (I know what happens when I ask that so I will only say that now that the day is over). So, I found another parking spot, jumped out and ran back into the store.

They had gotten a cart and were in the produce section. How was I going to approach them? I thought about just getting close and looking at some cucumbers or something to see if I could recognize their accent but I didn't want to be some creepy person so I just went for it (like that's not creepy, ha!). They were facing away from me so I stood next to the woman and said, "Hi, excuse me." They both gave me the look of "Wait! We don't speak English!" So, in Spanish I said, "I think I know you. Are you from the Canary Islands?"

Immediately, their eyes lit up and they got the biggest grins on their faces as they exclaimed "Yes!" (or rather, "Si!")

NO WAY!! This does not happen!

I quickly explained that I knew them! That I had served in Lanzarote in 2000. They were so happy to see me! I'm sure they didn't specifically recognize me because she said that they fed the missionaries every Wednesday for years so there's no way to remember each one. Plus, it's been SO long. But, she did say that my face was familiar.

Who sees and recognizes people from their Spanish mission at a Walmart in Utah 14 years later?!  Seriously?!

To be honest, I didn't remember their names, but I do know that they were in the branch in Arrecife, Lanzarote and that we had lunch at their house every Wednesday for the 4+ months I was in the area. (They have a son named Javier and a daughter named Sarah and an older daughter who I never met because she was going to school at BYU when I was in the islands). In fact, I got to my first area on a Wednesday, met my companion and district, dumped my suitcases at the piso (apartment), then went directly to the Padilla's house to have lunch. They were my very first 'dinner' appointment in my first area on the very first day of my mission. So cool, huh?! (I'm clearly excited. I'm using a lot of exclamation points!)

Plus, when I cut my index finger to the bone (gross, I know - wanna see the scar?) with scissors while making a guagua (bus) out of poster board for the branch talent show, I'm pretty sure it was them who took me to the emergency room to get stitches :) I'll have to ask them when I see them again.

We talked for a few minutes about how their kids are doing and what I've been doing the past 14 years. Their oldest daughter lives in Springville and they are staying with her. Mercedes (the mom) has been here for 5 years and Andres (the dad) just got here not long ago.

The thing I most remember about the Padillas (they told me their first names and I remembered their last name after I left) is that Mercedes makes one of the best dishes I have ever eaten called Ropa Vieja (Old Clothes) which we had on my first day in the islands. In fact, I have tried numerous times to find the recipe online or remember what was in it to try to recreate it without any luck. I still can't believe that I saw them! This may sound silly but I'm pretty sure God had His hand in this sighting. So many things had to fall into place (photos starting later than planned, stopping at Walmart at all, parking at the grocery entrance, the rude guy) for us to pass by each other at just the right time. Plus, it's nothing short of a miracle that I even recognized Andres. Not all of my bad days end in such a great way, but I'm so glad this one did!

Mercedes told me that they are going back to the islands next month and staying for 2 months but that she would call me when they get back and have me over for some Ropa Vieja! I can't wait! I still can't believe that I saw them, recognized him and was assertive (or crazy) enough to approach them.

The only thing I'm sad about is that I didn't get a photo with them - which, as everyone knows - is so unlike me! I need to go through my mission photos and find some of them. They're in a box somewhere!

Going Strong

So, this week we are officially half way done with our torture sessions workouts with Trainer Mike.

And, no, he hasn't gotten any nicer.

Okay, that's not really true. He's super nice but mean at the same time because he makes us do so many impossibly hard things. It's maddening. Here's a picture of him that I stole from Facebook (that's what it's for, right?) so everyone knows just what I have to deal with twice a week.

It's really difficult, let me tell you.

And yes, his arms really are that big.

So, I want to document tonight's workout. Just so I remember what I survived. I also would like the record to show that I am sick. I have what we Utahns call the mandatory 'Jump Into Spring' cold. I haven't had a cold for 2 years and I was so hoping that I would have the same good luck this year, but that did not happen. My throat has been super sore for 4 days and now my sinuses, nose and lungs have joined the party. I'm pretty miserable and totally wanted to skip this workout but decided that since I was miserable anyway, I might as well suffer through. Plus, I thought that Mike might go a little bit easier on me since I am very apparently under the weather (my nose is super red a la Rudolph), but he was not.

I even took my own box of lotion saturated Kleenex because the last time I had to blow my nose at the gym, I had to use toilet paper.

red, sore nose + scratchy toilet paper = misery

The owner of the gym, Jess was totally offended and showed me his whole supply closet full of lotion-y Kleenex. So sorry Jess. I will not bring my own Kleenex again.

Okay, so we started out with a 'pep talk' about our diet. It's not going so well. This is the meal plan Mike gave me last week:

3 day low carb

Meal 1

         1/4 cup oatmeal or quinoa, 5 egg whites

Snack

      Protein drink (dymatized ISO 100) & (1 tsp of all natural peanut butter)

Meal 2

         10 oz of (turkey, chicken breast (skinless), cup of veggies +, 1 medium sweet potato

Snack

           23 almonds

Dinner

           8 oz fish ( salmon, tilapia, orange roughy etc), veggies ( spinach, broccoli) or bowl of salad , 1/2 avocado 

Supplement 

Take multivitamins complex daily 

Fish or flax oil 2 times a day

Glutamine before bed time

Drink at least 1 gallon water daily

                                                 1 day high carb

Meal 1

1/2 cup oats or quinoa,  5 egg white , 1 whole egg, 1/2 grape fruit

Snack

Protein drink (1 scoop)

Lunch

Chicken salad:

Toss 6 ounces shredded skinless roast chicken breast with  1/4 cup sliced red grapes, 1 table spoon slivered almonds, 1 table spoon light mayonnaise, 1 table spoon fat free sour cream, serve over lettuce

Snack

1 apple, 

Dinner

6 ounce poached salmon ( or tilapia), (1 cup steamed green beans, or mixed veggies)

1/2 avocado, 1/4 cup cooked brown rice or quinoa.

Sounds delicious, right?

I did really well the first 2 days but if I have to eat another egg white, I'm going to throw up. They are so disgusting! So, I substitute egg whites with cottage cheese and throw in a few carbs because I get straight up crazy if I go too long without salt and vinegar potato chips. Diet is 80% of weight loss/health. I'm getting better at it!

Okay, now to the workout. After our 20 minute chat, we started with squats to shoulder presses. I had 10 lb weights. 50 reps.

I got this image here

Next we did 50 reps of bicep curls.

I got this image here

My biceps are getting pretty toned! It's really exciting.

Then we did a 6-stop circuit (because there were 6 of us). I started doing these pull-up things on a bar. It was awful - as is most all of the stuff we have to do. We used (I don't know all the terms) but the bar of the barbell that was on the rack. We put our feet very far forward, held onto the bar and lowered our bodies to the floor and pulled ourselves back up the bar.

I could only do 3 before I had to rest.

Mike is the devil.

The next stop was leg presses with 90 lbs. Not fun, but not impossible.

Next was squatting to pick up a 25 lb medicine ball, lifting it above our heads while standing up, then throwing it as high as we could up in the air and letting it fall to the floor.

And repeat.

The next torture method was similar to the first but we pulled our bodies up basically off the floor while holding onto rings attached to rope - I'm sure there's a technical name for it. I call it 'Hell on Earth.' After about 3 reps, it's pretty impossible.

The next stop was kettlebell squats with 25 lbs. We put our butts lower than this chica in the picture. More of a squat, not so much bending over.

I got this image here

Then the last one was a tricep pull. It was pretty easy at first (17.5 lbs) but was super difficult after 80 reps.

I got this image here

Since we started the actual workout later than normal, this took a good amount of time so I was excited when I looked at the clock and we only had about 15 minutes left. Mike sent us outside to run to the stop sign and back. It's about 3 blocks which isn't far - I know - but we were already SO tired! Plus, there is a Walgreens drive-thru window, Chevron and a bank drive-thru between the gym and the stop sign. That means that tons of people get to see us struggling there and back. We leave all of our pride at the door of the gym.

So, we jogged/made our way pretty slowly to the stop sign and back. When we got back, Mike had us turn around and do jump squats back to the stop sign.

Seriously?!

I told you! He's so mean!

Jump squats are exactly how they sound. You jump forward, then squat. Jump forward, then squat. I got about 3/4 of the way down one block then had to switch to walking squats - which aren't that much easier. Especially after you do a million of them. You face sideways with your legs far apart, do a squat and touch the ground in front of you with both hands, then, with your feet still far apart, you do a 180 then squat again as you (very slowly) move your way down the block.

It's hard not to feel embarrassed because there are a lot of people watching me struggle my way down the sidewalk. Especially because there's another trainer going up and down the same stretch with her team of real-life Barbies. But, I don't care. Most of the people in the Walgreens drive-through are picking up prescriptions for weight-related conditions and the people at the bank's next stop is the fast food drive-thru on their way home. I am making a change and I don't care what anyone else thinks.

I need to be better about writing down the specific exercises we do because, as much as I love Mike and would love to keep going to him twice a week for forever, I can't afford him.

Here's to a positive life change!

I got this!