Pain Will Do You Good

Did my second boot camp with Marc today. I can do Anything he tells me to...I can't begin to tell you how empowering that feeling is.  He noticed that my balance is still not as strong as it can be and my hip flexors are very tight so we worked on those areas extra long today in addition to major core work.  

I can already tell I'll wake up sore tomorrow, but the best way I've found to overcome that pain is to jump on the treadmill for 15-30 minutes and get all my muscles warmed up real well so they loosen, then roll out on the foam roller.

I'm excited that my body will be in peak form in a few short weeks so I can continue to make the headway I started in LA. I'm even more excited that after just 3 short days of participating in this new Game On! session my stomach is no longer bloated and clothes are beginning to feel loser.

What will you do to get yourself on the right track?

My Summer Pantry

This summer these are the foods that have been in abundance in my house:

A large variety of fruits – it’s always a quick, healthy snack

Roasted chicken breast for quick meals – I roast 5-6 breasts at a time, peel off the skin, remove the meat from the bones and cut into approx 2 oz. pieces.

Par cooked veggies – broccoli, carrots, cauliflower & green beans are great to eat with a slight crunch as a quick addition to lunch or the final cooking step can be completed while cooking the rest of dinner (like a stir fry).

Grilled red onion slices – I usually drizzle with evoo or balsamic vinegar before grilling.  I love having a big plateful of these ready for when I want to add a little umph to a simple meal.

Bell peppers in every color – great to eat raw, on kebobs, in salads and, my fave, with sautéed onions.

We have a large pot out on the deck growing a myriad of fresh herbs: rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, savory, sage, etc. A simple chicken or fish can truly taste delicious if properly spiced even without fats.  Be sure to master the cooking technique.

And we always have bananas on hand for Nutritionist Karen’s famous Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake – my son and honey have both become addicted!

Karen’s Peanut Butter Banana Protein Shake

1 serving

1 scoop Jay Robb chocolate powder (or 1 packet)

1.5 tbl natural peanut butter

½ large banana (or 1 small banana)

½ cup unsweetened almond breeze

½ cup ice

Put the ice in the blender first, add remaining ingredients, blend and enjoy.

Let's Get It Started

Today was quite the awesome day.  Over the weekend I received an email from my gym's owner asking me to be the captain of a team filled with new players for our 4th session of Game On! I had played two previous games and was the grand winner of the 2nd game dropping 20 lbs. In 8 weeks.

I am excited to help out the new women. We'll email daily and support and inspire each other...just what I need after my disastrous August.

What I love about the game is that I get to add a new good habit and change a bad habit in my daily routine.  This time around I'm sticking with the "eating in front of the TV" rule.  I'm only allowed to eat a protein bar and drink either water or decaf green tea. My new good habit is to declutter and organize for 30 minutes a day.  My home will be looking real good when the game is over...woo hoo!

Today I also started my private boot camp sessions with my old trainer Marc. The man had a shit-eatin' grin on his face the entire time!

Why, you ask?

Because he had me doing exercises he's always wanted me to do but in my mind I couldn't do them.  That was 4 years and 60 lbs ago...now I believe in my abilities and did every exercise with a powerful attitude. Hey 90 minutes of boot camp preceded by 30 minutes of running was a breeze after my long, hard days in Marina Del Rey.

It's amazing how just one day of eating 5 small meals and drinking 3+ liters of water has on my body.  My stomach is already feeling lighter and smaller. I AM feeling the workout though...mostly in my back and shoulders. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures. My trainer Marc and me after today's workout (note, I wasn't going for beautiful - I was going for empowerment and strength); and a picture of Marc's "gun".

Get motivated to make changes this week!

Here I Go Again

Welcome Back!  This summer has been hectic - filled with lots of travel, family, friends & fun, including becoming a Certified Zumba Instructor.  It's also been filled with a few demons.

The demons arrived in August and just finally went away…I think.  Those demons are my "old" thoughts: losing weight is so hard, preparing the right foods is time-consuming, I don't have the time to get a workout in today.

Yup, I thought them all throughout most of August.  Now don't get me wrong - I still did some bike riding, some running, and some Zumba, but not like I had been doing and certainly not with great focus.  In the summer at our house we tend to eat healthier than we do the rest of the year, but the wine bug got ahold of me and the sugar and salt bugs joined right in.  As a result I stopped looking at my portion sizes so closely and just enjoyed life…in more ways than I should have!

But that's what makes us human, right?  We are always going to have "life" which can get in the way of our real goals.

So, of course, I began mentally beating myself up about not keeping up with my LIFE program.  Old habits die hard.  It's been making me think about Daris from The Biggest Loser again…remember when he went home for 30 days and trained for the marathon but fought the food demons at night?

But "brain" help came in form of the doctor I saw in Santa Monica back in May.  We had a conference call last week and he told me my body chemistry is still so far off that unless I maintain my "California" lifestyle forever my body will slowly continue to gain it back.  Is he kidding?  Nope.

So he's sending me a regimen of meds, herbs, etc. to work on my body chemistry to get it balanced again.  Because once I regain balance - in my body and my brain and my life - things will begin working in my favor.  Hello!  That's all I need to make me smile.  The package should arrive today and I look forward to reading & digesting his full report plus beginning the "Fix My Body For Good" protocol.

On another good note, today I'm back with half of the Wonder Women (Sharon aka Sharona & Clare) and we're battling each other in Game On!  No matter what, I find the Game On! way of eating is the easiest, healthiest way for me to emulate my food at LIFE.  So I weighed in this morning and reported it to my Competitors…heh heh.  Because I weigh so much more than them I'll lose more every week, but I've got to make sure my scorecard is as perfect as can be.  We still haven't figured out a prize, but I'm thinking they have to detail my car, or buy me a Gucci bag, or make my meals for a week…ha!

I've already been to the gym today and did 45 minutes of interval sprinting on the treadmill.  My old trainer Marc saw me and my beet red face dripping with sweat and told me he was so happy to see me working hard that he wanted to kiss me!  I'll have to post a picture…you'll want him to kiss you too…ha ha!

I start a bootcamp with Marc next week - 3 days, 1.5 hours each day.  Plus I'll do another 45+ minutes of cardio on my own which is so easy to get in with my Zumba.  On the days I don't train with Marc I'll do a minimum of 1 hour cardio, but in many cases it will be 2 hours because I'm choreographing my own Zumba routines and I need to get them as close to perfect as possible so I can begin teaching classes.

So Fall is almost here and I'm back on track.  It feels great!

We Are the Champions

Yesterday we had a celebration at my gym.  If you recall, back in March we started a “diet” competition called Game On!  You can read about it here and here. 

My team was the Wonder Women.  We placed 2^nd out of 3 teams.  I participated the first 3 weeks here at home, then finished out the last 5 weeks in California. 

The competition culminated  with an 80’s dress up night and karaoke.  The losers had to serenade the winners.  I missed it, but everyone there had a great time! 

The gym gave the participants 2 weeks off then started another 8-week round of Game On! mid-May.  I was still in California, but opted to participate again because I figured it would be yet another point of accountability for me.  My first 2 weeks I participated while in California but finished out the last 6 weeks at home and my daughter, fresh back from college, joined me.  I released 20 lbs in the 8 weeks and my daughter released 11.  By the time this contest ended right after July 4^th the Wonder Women were the Champions and I was the Winner or Biggest Loser. 

Yesterday the 5 teams converged on the gym armed with “legal” food and gifts for the winning team.  No singing or dancing this time, but some of the stories were very inspiring and some were downright hysterical!

The new Game On! begins tomorrow for 7 teams – as more people find out about the success of the program at the gym, they decide to give it a whirl.  There are a few men participating this time around as well – Let’s Hear It For The Boys!

Alas, I have opted to sit out this round.  I did 21 consecutive weeks between Game On! and LIFE and I need a bit of a break.  But don’t worry, I’ll still be on track releasing pounds and keeping up with my workouts.

Maria’s back home in Miami and we’re using the buddy system to keep each other going.  Together we’ll be Champions!

Roll With the Changes

Keep on rolling...   Keep on rolling...

oooh...   oooh...   oooh... 


I have been down for the count the past few weeks.  My cervical discs are still acting up.  I had the cortisone shot which has prevented me from having pain higher than a 5…hooray!  But that niggling, annoying radiating pain into my shoulder & bicep still persists.  Some days my neck feels the pain, but it’s never higher than a 4 or 5. 

The problem is it’s still preventing me from getting any good workouts in.  And I haven’t done any upper body lifting since leaving LA – a situation which needs to be seriously rectified.

Last week I was feeling pretty good, so I went to they gym on Wednesday for an hour of treadmill sprint intervals.  I basically did Trainer Jonathan’s cardio boot camp: a combination of sprinting and walking at different speeds and for different times.  After that came lower body weights followed by 10 minutes of abs.  I felt great the rest of the day and my neck/shoulder/arm didn’t bother me at all.

Thursday I went back to the gym.  If you recall, I began really running towards the end of my time in LA and I had an IT Band issue.  I didn’t want to have a relapse so I did incline intervals on the treadmill: a combination of walking at 0% incline up to 12% incline for different time periods.  That was followed by lots of stretching. 

I still felt great so I decided to go for broke.  Went to Zumba that night.  Ouch!  It’s the dancing.  When I dance I use my whole body including my head.  Actually, just listening to music gets my head bopping.  I bopped a little too much because my neck was sore the next day.

Maybe I need a neck brace for Zumba!

This week I have been a slug again due to many different circumstances.  I do my neck exercises and some light walking, but I’m really itching get back to the weights.  I’m driving my docs nuts because all I talk about is how I NEED to get back to working out.

I know they think I’m a little obsessed. 

Maybe you do too; however, I know me.  I’m worried that if I get too complacent I may lose the fire in me to keep going until I reach my goal.  After all my hard work I cannot let that happen!

So, I’m rolling with it…doing what I can when I can.  It’s really my only option right now.  I can’t complain too much as I’m down 12 lbs since leaving LA.  I just gotta keep workin’ it!

My Newest Injury

My newest injury started out as a small nuisance much like a continuous buzzing gnat.  I awoke my last Friday at LIFE with a niggling intermittent throb in my left bicep.  It didn’t really bother me, but it was weird.  That Tuesday I was finished with the program but went to Santa Monica to get my hair done.  Then I joined my friends at the gym for a famous Chef Seong lunch and saw the chiropractor Dr. Hans for the last time.  Dr. Hans’s diagnosis – my 1^st left rib had moved out of place.

I didn’t know I had a rib that high, but apparently I do and it moved which was causing the annoyance in my left bicep.  He adjusted it and the problem was gone…for the day.

The niggling has continued for the past month.  2 weeks ago I awoke with a screaming left shoulder and bicep and my chiropractor here (Dr. Scott) took care of it.  And it went back to being a niggling pain for another week.

Now it’s much worse.

It landed me in the ER last weekend and I’ve been miserable ever since. 

I have been on major meds to deal with the pain and it finally took an MRI to make a correct diagnosis – 1 herniated disc and 1 bulging disc in my neck.  The mass from the herniated disc is pressing on my spinal nerves on the left side, which is causing the pain to radiate through my shoulder, behind my shoulder blade, and into my bicep. 

It’s not pretty. 

It’s quite frustrating.

It’s affecting my sleep (read: I’m not getting much!).

I’ve been a slug for a week now: no workouts, lounging around on the coach reading and watching TV, applying moist heat, icing, stretching, even putting my head in a ‘home traction’.  I’m doing all the physical therapy my doctor has prescribed.  I get relief where my pain goes from a 9-10 on the pain scale down to a 4-5.  It hasn’t gone below a 4 at all this week.  Right now as I sit here writing the pain is a 9.

I’ve decided I can’t live with the pain anymore.  I’m doing everything I can to work with this injury, but some days (like tonight) I get no relief.  So here I sit at 1 am chanting, “Come On Tuesday!”

Tuesday is the day I get the cortisone shot. 

In my spine…yikes!

I figure “what the hell?”  I already had 2 epidurals when I delivered my kids.  It can’t be any worse than that, right?  But this is a big deal as I’ll have to lie down on an x-ray table while my doctor uses x-ray guidance to show him exactly where to shoot the cortisone. 

I hope it works.  If not, I’ll need surgery, which entails a neurosurgeon going into the area and snipping off the portion of the disc that’s pressing against the nerves.  Let’s hope that neurosurgeon’s skills are on par with McDreamy!

Again…yikes!

Right now in the middle of the night when I’m awake with pain and feeling all alone – it’s looking grim.  The way I’m feeling right now I suspect poor Dr. Scott won’t have a full weekend off.  Do you think I can call his office now and get him to come in? 

Dr Scott, if I can’t sleep…no one can!

Come On Tuesday!