The (B)Right Side of 25

Hey Folks,

So sorry that there's been a bit of lapse in the posting (and I was doing so well too!) I ended up waffling a little on the eating and exercise, but I'm hoping to get back at it tomrrow! Just got a pair of brand new runners for my birthday, so expect to see running info up here as welll!

Given that I've strayed from the beaten path, measurements and weight was on hold. I'll repost when I start again.

TTFN!
- B

Hello!

By now we should know what time it is: Work Out Check in time. Sadly, the news isn't as great as it's been previous... :(

B: 38
W: 30.02
H: 39.5
LL: 24
RL: 23.8
LA: 12
RA: 12.5

148.2 LBS.

Inches Lost This Week: 0! I gained .6
Weight Lost This Week: Also 0! I gained back the 1.4 :'(

I have to admit, I was a bit crushed by this discovery. I'll also admit that I had slip ups. Saturday was just a day of terrible eating and drinking. And supper on Thursday was a wash as well. But I continued doing an exercise each day (Although I did split up one workout on each day as well.

I was pretty bummed to see the numbers, but after doing a little internet research to see if it's just me losing my motivation or if its part of the program, I've found that I don't need to lose heart just yet!

This website here explains it best: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2011/08/gaining-weight-early-in-the-p90x-workout/ . But for those that don't want to read the whole thing, here's the cribs notes version:

With a new exercise program, you'll sometimes make teeny tears in the muscle. In response to this bit of damage, the body makes the muscle retains fluid for protection, becoming a little swollen and inflamed. This can cause up to 3 or 4 lbs in TEMPORARY weight gain. Many people can probably associate this with sore muscles, but some people get it without the soreness (I'm am not one of these lucky individuals). In the long run, as you keep going, it will work itself out, and it won't be a permanent gain.

So it seems that what I'm experiencing is muscle gain and probably some water retention (because I'm telling you, my booty is certainly feeling it this morning from a workout 2 days ago. And I'm holding to that like it's the last floating log in a swift current). Also, the rest of this week is all cardio, plus my 2 running days. I may also add in 2 extra ab workouts, because really, the belly is what I'd like to see shrink.

Sorry this is coming a little later in the day. It's been a busy day for me.  See you all next week! (Maybe earlier if I have something of interest to blog about)

-B

Hello again!

I have to apologize again for the somber topics that have come up recently. Not very fitting for a (B)right side blog I know. However, even the most cheerful of us have some sobering thoughts that need to be expressed. I think of it like lancing a wound, almost. Except less icky.

With all that behind us, it is now time for a more pleasant post. It's time for my weekly update on being fit! I hope that my enthusiasm for this maintains (even I'm surprised at how invested I am in this. I like to be fit, but there's just certain food I normally love so much more... ) I am oh-so-pumped about it though. I can actually feel myself getting better and stronger and healthier. Tomorrow I go for my first run in a very long time.

So, this week past: There were some slip ups. I'm supposed to be exercising every day, and I ended up taking 2 rest days instead of one. I just didn't have it in me on Wednesday. I was utterly gassed, and just the idea of lacing up my shoes and turning on the TV was just... ugh... exhausting.  So I took the day and came back 110% after. I pledged to just carry on through, and do an extra work out on Sunday (my normal rest day). THAT didn't happen, there was just too much going on for me to squeeze one in (and, to be honest, I reeeaally didn't even want to do the shortest of all the work outs). I also didn't eat great. I didn't eat terribley, but I wasn't as good as what I should have been. Pizza here, too much coffee there, a stray fast-food visit or two (I count coffee runs in this). If I had stuck to my healthy eating plan a little closer, I probably would have gotten better results. But! Even with the slip ups, it still worked out to some good news. Here are the numbers for this week:

B: 37.5  
W: 30.5 
H: 39.1  
LL: 24  
RL: 23.8
LA: 12  
RA: 12.5

Weight: 146.8

Inches Lost This Week: 2.3
Weight Lost This Week: 1.4

Total Inches Lost Since Start: 5.35
Total Weight Lost Since Start: 1.4. (We're going to assume that the measure last week didn't change from the start :D)

I'm so happy with this! Not quite as big as last week, but still, very happy. Especially since the other option would be not losing and probably gaining :S.

I'm back strong this week, having completed my workout today, and looking forward to tomorow, as well as the run! Hoo-yeah! Cardio! Bring it!.. woah... what happened there? This is what I was talking about when I said I was surprised how excited I was about this. I just get super excited about the workout. It's weird, I'm not used it it, lol!

Alright folks, that's all I have for today. I thank you for following along with me. :) Please bear with me as I navigate the world of blogging. You'll notice that I may jump in topic, and tone (though I will try to control that), but these are growing pains. I hope one day to be a grade A blogger one day! (or at least a grade B) I'll also try to not shoot from the hip (posting first drafts) quite as much. Between the workout and the inspiration I was talking about a few posts again, I'm feeling so up.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day.

See you soon!

- B

Hello Interwebs once again.

Are we ready for another somber blog post? No? You may want to click away, 'cause I've been thinking about this for a while. It's impregnated my brain, has gestated and is finally ready to pop out all pink and perfect with all the right things in all the right place.

I've been thinking about friendships. Or rather... the changing nature of friendships. Some change and evolve into wonderful things that bring your friendships to new heights, new places. Others fade peacefully, and still others come in fast and furious into your life only to leave just as abruptly. I'm familiar with all these. And I, like many others, am at peace with them. When a friendship changes in one of these ways, I accept it, perhaps with some sadness, depending on the circumstances, and move on.

But there are others that have a bigger impact. The Lifers. For the majority, I'm not one of those people that has a million best friends, crushed when each leaves. Instead, I have many acquaintances, and establish a few significant relationships that haveand I expect will last for years, if not life. I have a small selection of very close friend, a handful at best. It is the changes in these kinds of relationships that can be pretty big. Changes that happen for the better are fabulous. It's so incredibley cool when you suddenly have all these new things that you can talk about, or you know you can talk about all the things that you think are cool, and your friend just lets you and accepts it.

But there are bound to be those friendhips that you lose. You grow apart, you no longer have similar interests. Sometimes you can see it happen, giving you some time to prepare for it. Other times, it happens and makes your head spin.

Maybe it's after a separation or some big life changes, but that friend you knew and loved  is no longer the same person. They've changed and grown to follow a completely different path. You've changed and probably barely realize it. Someimes it's a disliked action where you suddenly realize the changes between you and your friend, or worse that they've been doing this all along, and it's only now you realize it. You struggle to speak with them, to understand them, to re-establish a new connection with this new incarnation of your friend. When that doesn't work, you try to reconnect on that age-old friendship you had. But talking to them is harder than that first class in calculus after a year of doing nothing but English courses. It hits you like a ton of bricks. Regardless of the reason, your close, bonded friendship gone.

It pulls at your heart. You feel like crushed and depressed. You yearn for those younger years when you knew you could count on your friendship to last forever. Movies, coffee dates, walks, talks, games. You miss it all. It seems that it should be simple to get back, but you might as well try to climb up a sheer rock wall. How do you come to terms with a friendship that's ended? When you've been bumped to acquaintence and don't know how to get back? Do you let it go? Fight to get it back?

Enough of that from yesterday! Today is a day to talk about something I'm doing with that inspiration I found. Last week I started the a workout/healthy eating program. There's 3 days of cardio, 2 of strength training, one day of the two blended and a rest day. I'm also starting to bike to work on occaision, and hoping to start running in a running club.

It's tough sticking to it, and after that first week, I'm sore and desparately missing my favorite foods (I've been dreaming about homemade Mac 'n Cheese..... *drool*). To keep me on track, I took down my measurements on the first day, with the intent of recording it every week, on my rest day. I hmmd and hahhhd about posting it. In the end, I thought it would be a good way of keeping mysefl accountable (and another step in addressing those concerns from prior posts). Here's the score from last Sunday:

Bust: 37.75
Waist: 31.5
Hips: 41
Right Leg: 24.5
Left Leg: 24.5
Right Arm: 12.5
Left Arm: 12.7

Weight: Est. 148 lbs. (I forgot to actually weigh myself, so I estimated :S )

7 days later, after sweat and pain and effort, along with some much needed diet changes (it really isn't healthy to have a diet that consists of 50% carbs 15% Tea.... and yes, I think tea should be considered a food group. It is a delicious cure-all) and there HAVE been changes!! As of this Sunday:

B: 37.5     
W: 30.5              
H: 40                  
RL: 24                
LL: 24.2             
RA: 12.9            
LL: 12.6             

Weight: 148.2

So, in total: 3.05 inches lost in a week! Weight wise... a bit more discouraging, but I'm not going to get down about it. Either I underestimated the weight in the beginning, or I gained some muscle.

I'm pretty pumped so far. In order to keep myself motivated, I bought myself a new swimsuit as something to look forward to (while also thinking that since I paid money for this, I better stick to it! :D)

I'm so excited about this. I am going to get fit and be healthy, which will also result in looking better and feeling better about my shape. I want to be able to run the Tely Ten ( a local marathon) and, having tried it while away, I'd like to get back into rock-climbing. And I will. :) 

So happy to be off to a good start!

-B

Hello Interwebs!

I seem to have fallen behind on the blogging a little bit, but that blog topics list I mentioned last time is ever-growing. This means that, eventually, you'll have some wonderful, fabulous interesting things to read. Perhaps. It could just be wonderful, fabulous and interesting to me. Either way, it's gettin' posted!

My very next thing I wanted to share was my nail polish collection. I was inspired by a recent little trip to my local Sally's. Initially, I had just gone in to pick up some nail decorating tools (which I didn't find) but instead picked up a different, but still great, little tool - the nail colour wheel! As an extra bonus, I spotted a shade of nail polish that was on sale! Extra extra bonus, it was a shade of my new favourite colour, teal.

Now, I know at this point you are just DYING to see my little collection. Don't worry, I won't keep you waiting :)

1) Finger Paints: Art Dealer Teal-er
- This was the new shade I found. And I. Am. In. Love. I haven't used it yet, but sooooon, so very very soon. Aside from my utter love, perhaps I should give you a little review. I found this polish went on very well. It did take 3-4 coats for it to get a good opaque colour, but it was smooth and shiny.

2) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Ivy League
- This is also a favourite, as it is a bright and sparkly shade. It made me think of a neon green, but I think it's shine in it. It's just a healthy, bright colour. It looks lovely with accents.

3) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Blizzard Blue
- This colour is beautiful. Once you get enough coats on, that is. This colour goes on SUPER light, so it takes about 3 before it good solid color, unlike the Ivy League. But it is really pretty and can be wonderful for water marbling

4) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Hot Magenta
- What can I say? This brand has cool colours and really good prices. This colour has a huge pop and very hot pink. I love it. Also works wonderfully as an accent colour. It applies really well and, at most, I'll apply 2 coats.

5) Del Sol Colour-Changing Nail Polish: Peek-a-boo
- This is a tricky one. In the bottle, it's an unpleasant yellow, it goes on clear, and if you go out in the sun, it'll turn hot pink. Not as pink as the Hot Magenta, but still a very pretty colour. As soon as I can, I will grab a picture and post it for you to see. This goes on pretty well... but you can't really tell if it's streaky until it's dry and you go out in the sun.

6) Del Sol Colour-Changing Nail Polish: Superhero
- At first glance, this looks very similar to the Blizzard Blue. I find it's much gentler though. Out of the two Del Sol shades, this is my favourite. I love both the colour in the shade, and the colour in the sun - a lovely lilac. Although I like the colour, it still doesn't go on as well as some other shades. But I'm willing to keep it still.

7) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Virtual Violet
- This is very similar to the Blizzard Blue. Beautiful light colour, but needs a number of coats to get the solid colour.

8) China Glaze: Senorita Bonita
- One of my absolute favourites, this polish goes on lovely with just 2 coats. The sparkle adds a pop to the deep and vibrant colour.

9) Unknown Brand: Alexander the Grape
- A couple of polishes I've had for... well... pretty much for as long as I can remember. This is one of those. The brand name has rubbed off the bottle. This colour is pretty vampy. I'm not certain if I want to keep it. I can only think that I will use it for Halloween or possibly for accent. We'll see how it goes.

10) Show Colours: Couldn't read the name
- As stated... I couldn't read the name on this one. It's in the teeniest, tiniest writing I've ever seen, and I'm going to need a magnifying glass to read it. Might be a problem since I haven't had one of those on hand since high school.... but again, this colour went on surprisingly well for a polish that is so old and I liked it much more than I expected! I plan on using this one.

11) Oil of Olay: Terra
- I'm not even certain how this colour made its way into my collection. It's not something that I immediately like, and when I see it on the colour wheel, I start to like it. Then I hold it up against my own nail. It just seems like such an older colour for me. This is pretty well going.

12) Unnamed bottle and unnamed shade
- Does anyone remember getting those giant boxes of make up and nail polish kits as pre-teen/teen? The ones from places like Walmart? This shade came from that. I don't know if this picture does it justice, but this red goes on really really well. It's like a bright, fresh cranberry red. I'm really enjoying it.

13) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Gunmetal
- This is such a cool shade. Much love for this one, though I haven't worn it often. It's just so rocker chic. Happy Nail Bliss for me.

14) Sally Hansen Extreme Wear: Celeb City
- I always see this as a much brighter, much more FABULOUS, version of Gunmetal. It goes on really well. And if I don't want something too strong, a single coat is fine.

15) Maybelline Color Show: Bold Gold
- I have a love-hate relationship with this color. On one hand, it usually only needs one coat to get a good, solid, rich color. It is actually like liquid gold. And although that picture doesn't show it well, it does have a nice shimmer. Not strong, but again, like there's liquid gold on your fingers. That being said.

It's the goopiest, most quick drying crap I've ever used. It's unlikely I'll use another colour from this brand. They have beautiful shades, but it just clumps so easily, leaves lines and so many brush strokes. It does have it's uses, and I won't toss it.... I just probably wouldn't buy it again if I can find a similar one in another brand.

16) Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: Whirlwind White
- This is a nice crisp white, takes about 2 coast, and is really really good for doing french tips. Love it. :)

17) O.P.I: Black Shatter
- You'll notice I skipped one almost black nail. This was an attempt at a double coat of the black shatter. Clearly it failed. I'll clear it off and paint an actual black polish with it. In the mean time, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Black Shatter. I haven't used it on the white as shown here, but used it plenty on the Hot Magenta, the Blue, the Ivy League. It's a go-to favourite.

So there you have it, my polish collection! Most of these are under 3 dollars (Cdn), with the exception of the Teal-er (4.99) and the O.P.I. (9.99 to buy, but I won it for free).

And as much as I complained about the gold, I actually used it this week past!



Yes, I'm holding on the phone. Holding a bottle of polish just ... wouldn't work. So phone it is. You'll notice I'm wearing the red (number 12) as a base. I'm also a big fan of the accent nail lately. So I water marbled the gold and red together (many, many, many tries. Many. It dried ridiculously fast. I was not happy). I loved the accent nail the best. I think that, the next time I do this, I'll do the gold on red on all the nails with red on gold as an accent nail. I think it would look just fantastic. I also tried to keep the polish clean, using a q-tip to clean up the cuticle and as close to the nail as possible. I also try to make sure to put down a base coat (Pro-FX Protein Enriched Base Coat and Revitalizer) as well as Sally Hansen Hard as Nails topcoat. Helps it last quit a long time. :)

That's all I have for now folks. I'm hoping to use the rest of the wheels that I have for practice for nail art. Once those are done, be sure I'll be posting them here as well.

Enjoy all things everyone!