who wears short shorts? i guess i do...

so despite the incredible efforts put forth by myself and my amazing trainer Christian i seem to have hit a bit of a plateau.  this means 2 things for me: 1) i'm off starchy-carbs again (sigh) and 2) i'm freaking out a little.

well, i was at first, but i think all of my working out and whatnot has improved my confidence or something.  you see, for the first time, i am able to look on this bright side that everyone's always talking about.

it's kind of a silly story but i think the moral of it is pretty good:

the other day i was heading off to a long day on set in what was going to be 90 degree weather.  i knew it was way too hot for jeans and my favorite pair of shorts were dirty.  i took a moment to review my options and knew i didn't really have any.

you see, for many, many years, i refused to wear shorts.  my self confidence was so low that i would have rather overheated, than have my legs exposed.  i would wear these knee length fake-shorts things and pretend i wasn't way too hot.

anyway, back to my nothing to wear to work drama: i knew that i'd be way too hot in my fake-shorts so i decided to make some new ones.  it was about 4:30 in the morning and my house was pitch black so i couldn't really see what i was doing.  i made the shorts and drove out to set and only then did i notice how shorts these shorts i had just made actually were.  after a momentary panic about how little clothing i was wearing i realized that everything was just fine.

i wasn't overheating, i wasn't naked and honestly, i looked pretty good!

so maybe my progress has slowed down a little lately, but ya know what? that's ok.

i've come so far even if my body isn't where i want it to be eventually.  and anyway, the ability to feel good about myself regardless of what i look like, is worth so much more.

besides, i have no doubt Christian will come up with some new ways to kick my ass post haste and get things back on track!

so in the spirit of giving ourselves credit where credit's due, here's a little visual representation of my journey thus far:

2 years ago, pretending not to be hot

now, hot in a different way!

don't think, just do

so, my delightful A.R.T. Method trainer Christian is a bit of a hippie.

i'm sure if he heard me say this he would disagree and tell me that most of his ideologies come from Eastern schools of thought, and "the hippie" is a decidedly Western idea... however, for the sake of simplicity, i'm gonna call him a hippie.

whenever i'm working with him he's always telling me things like "stop thinking about what you're doing so much", and "the only thing stopping you from being able to do [whatever thing i'm struggling with] is mental", and "if you believe you can do it, you can" etc... 

now, if you know me, you'll know that i'm a bit of a pessimist/skeptic.  so whenever people say things about how i'm getting in my own way, and if i just believed in myself i could do anything at all, my first instinct is to roll my eyes.  how on earth could my mindset have any outcome at all on the world around me?  either i can do something or i can't, the way i feel about it isn't going to change anything right?

well the truth of the matter is, i have no idea.  i have no idea how different my life could be if i could just turn my brain off for a little while!  i have always been "in my head" and what makes it even worse is that the inside of my head is apparently a very negative place.

but clearly, it's not making any of this any easier so i'm going to work on changing that.

i could get the most bangin' bod in the world but if i'm still the kind of person whose mind is full of self doubt and negative thoughts, i'll still be miserable.

so from now on, i'm going to start giving myself the silent treatment.  i don't think i'll ever be the kind of person who believes in herself strictly on blind faith, but the least i can do is not listen to the negative BS.

so the next time Christian tells me that someday very soon i'll be doing 20 pushups on my hands and feet (no knees) i'm not going to indulge the part of my brain that wants to think about how that's too many and it's too much weight and i'm gonna hurt my back and i'll never be able to do that.  i'm just gonna give it my best shot.

after all, how bad can it be?  have you ever seen a miserable hippie? i certainly haven't...

-V

summer soup

so, i love soup.  regardless of season or climate, i want soup.

i have this rule, i think spicy soups are for summer and heavier/richer soups and stews are for fall/winter.  maybe it doesn't make any sense but that's my soup rule and i'm sticking to it!

so with that in mind, i present to you Summer Chicken & White Bean Chili.  it's for summer because it's made with white beans, and you wear white after Memorial Day, or something.

i clearly have no idea what i'm talking about but i do know that this soup is delicious and you should make some, even if you don't think soup is for summertime.

Summer Chicken & White Bean Chili
serves: 2
points plus value per serving: 10

7oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
15oz can great northern beans
1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
2 small poblano peppers, finely diced
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper
adobe seasoning
cumin
cayenne pepper

place chicken in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and adobo seasoning.  let sit while you prep the rest of your ingredients.

heat olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat, add in chicken and brown on all sides, remove from pot.

add onion, peppers and garlic and cook until slightly wilted.  add canned beans and season with salt, pepper, cumin & cayenne.  return chicken to pot, add chicken stock and cook until soup is thickened.  check for seasoning once more before serving.

clearly i ate this with a mess of avocado on top which only increased its summery taste and overall deliciousness.

so next time you're looking for an easy summer dinner, try this one out, i promise you won't be dissapointed!  and i promise your stove won't even be on long enough to heat up your house!

-V

bread coma

so the other night i was lazing about with my roommate Emily watching Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Last Ark if you're curious, the best of the series in my humble opinion), and we were both very hungry, but we were also both feeling incredibly lazy.  so delivery it was.

sadly neither of us were in any position to make a responsible decision about what to eat, so we settled on ordering pizza.  i know, i know, pizza fits nowhere into my ART Method Portion Control & Meal Management, but that's what i did. 

so we're sitting around, eating pizza and watching the movie and then something crazy started happening.  my body was literally shutting down.  i was so tired and lethargic that sitting up straight on the couch was more than i could handle.  about 20 minutes after my last bite of pizza i was slumped over, head on the arm of the couch, body half on the floor in a deep, deep bread coma.

at one point Emily shouted some words of warning to Indy (he was being dragged behind a humvee, it was very scary) and i nearly fell off the couch from being so startled out of my near comatose state.

this might not sound like anything of note to you, but i don't just fall asleep.  i fall asleep in pitch black soundless rooms and if there are any errant noises (including John Williams scores or shouting roommates), i will not fall asleep. 

you see, it's been so long since i've eaten that many carbs in one sitting that my body basically crashed when it tried to digest them.

now i've never argued against the fact that the best way to lost weight is to eat fewer carbs, but i have never so acutely felt their negative effects. 

so once again, i have to give Terri a big thank you.  a life without pizza (well, maybe not forever) may not be an easy thing to accept, but a life without ever passing out like that again is something i can look forward to!

-V

mind over matter

so yesterday was not a good day for me.  i was feeling really down on myself, and i was in such a fragile mental state that when i was flipping through the channels on the radio, the song Firework by Katy Perry actually caused me to burst into tears.

like i said, i was not doing well.

anyway, the last thing i wanted to do when i was feeling like this was go work out.  but i had an appointment at A.R.T, which i had already paid for, so i went.

the session was hard but i was really proud of myself because even though i hadn't been in for a week, i was making advancements.  we kicked the resistance on the eliptical up a couple notches and i'm doing the exercises with heavier weights and fewer props.

and then it was over and something miraculous had happened, i felt fine.

i'm not gonna exaggerate and say that i wasn't still worried about the things that i was worried about, but i wasn't crying and i just felt more stable.

i guess everybody was right when they said that working out when you're depressed is a lot more likely to turn it around than drinking a bunch and passing out... who knew!

so i guess what i'm trying to say is thanks for turning my day around Christian (and Terri of course), apparently i needed that!

-V

A.R.T. Method - i drank the kool-aid

so, Saturday was my last training session with A.R.T., well, it was supposed to be anyway...

let's backtrack a bit shall we?

during my Thursday session i had a bit of a breakthrough.  it was still hard and i still don't like working out, but it's working and for the first time i could feel it.

i felt stronger, i felt less jiggly, and most importantly, i felt hopeful.  like i actually had the ability to be in great shape, like i could actually have the body i want someday.

so, it is with this in mind that i happily eat my words and say that i'm going to keep training with A.R.T.

let me tell you about the things that happened to by body in the 2 weeks i worked out with Terri, Christian, Alisun & Helen:

- i lost 7 pounds

- i lost 17.25 inches (7.5 of them off of my waist!)

- i lost 6.72% body fat

think about that for a minute.  i've been thinking about it for 2 days and it still feels awesome.

now none of this is to say that what i've been doing in the past hasn't produced great results.  it totally has and i intend to keep working with Claire and Marina because I still love them and I still love pilates.  however, i think i've realized if i just do the stuff i love, i won't get the results i want.  i have to push myself, i have to do things that make me uncomfortable, i have to do resistance training, and (hardest of all for me to swallow) i have to do cardio.

that's the amazing thing about A.R.T. though, i'm doing these things i usually hate, but it's totally manageable.  i'm in there for one hour and i get in everything i need.  i do my cardio, i do my resistance training and then i'm out and on my way.  and unlike every other personal trainer i've ever dealt with, they're smart!  they know how to work with you and push you to your limits without asking you to do things that will compromise the health/safety of your body, which is super important to me.

so i'm gonna keep working out at A.R.T. and you'll be hearing all about it!  for the first time, i don't need y'all to wish me luck because i already know how great this will be for me!

-V

keep on keepin' on

well hello there!

so i've been working with that trainer since the 29th of April and while i would love to say that it's changed my life and i love working out now, you should all know better than to expect that...

i've had 8 sessions so far and let me tell you something, they are hard!

the other night i had to do 2 sets of 2 minute wall sits and by the end of each set, i was basically in tears.  on the other end of the spectrum, i did 30 push ups tonight so... that's huge!  i've lost like 6 inches off my waist which is nuts and generally, i feel super strong.

the only thing i'm not totally on board with is the eating plan that goes with their training method.

it's definitely been a good thing for me to cut down on my carbs, but i'm simply not willing to give up my afternoon snack.  WW has been pretty good to me so far so i think i'm gonna stick with it on the eating front.

my last session is this coming Saturday so maybe i'll post a picture showing my progress or something.

i couldn't afford to keep going with the training even if i wanted to, but i definitely think i'll take some good lessons from this with me when i get back to my regular fitness schedule.

-V