40+ Club- I'm Dreaming Of A Light Christmas

I am just trying to figure this all out

"I am just trying to figure this all out "



Hang in there it will all come about, anyone will be more than glad to help! And welcome to MFP!:flowerforyou:
Rhonda

Happy Monday everybody! I hope everybody enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.

twin2, good to see you. I hope you can figure out a way of taking time for yourself. It does seem like alot of parents (mothers in particular) get lost in their role in the family, so I hope you can carve out a few hours a week just for you. It's so important to do that. Great job on the weight loss!

singfree, of course you can join me on my 'cleaner eating until Christmas' journey. I've made it two days so far. Only 24 more to go! :laugh:

So I started the second month of Insanity. Thanks for the recommendation on going back to month one, singfree. I may just do that because I'm not so certain my body is going to be up for a full month of this. Yowza! The two 'max' workouts I've done so far are the plyo and interval circuits, and all I can say is.....wow. Those are some tough workouts. I can definitely feel them in my legs right now. But I'm going to try to get through two weeks (unless my body says 'no' of course) before taking a break. I didn't like the max plyo workout at all (the first Insanity workout I haven't loved), so if I get too tired during the next couple of weeks, I may go back to the non-max plyo workout (from the first month) which I enjoy immensely. If I can finish up this Insanity rotation, I have no doubt I'll be in the best cardio conditioning of my life. It is just whether this 44 year old body is up to the impact.

I hope everybody has a great day!

Good morning!!! Almost December!! :noway: :drinker: :laugh:

Stiring, good to hear from you. And from everyone!!! Glad everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

I am still not back to where I was before my injury. I've been doing my stretches but not daily. I vowed to do that this week and maybe try doing the shred video starting next week until the cruise. I have done two upper body strength trng workouts, doing my third one today. The hip muscle hurts sometimes, usually after the stretches. :noway: so I know I still have to take it easy.

This week I am signing both contracts to teach Zumba at two different fitness facilities...:noway: what am I getting into?? :laugh: I am a little nervous about it, I hope it works out. I would start the first week in Jan. I still have the whole month of Dec to get my music, routine ready so I feel better prepared. Unfortunately I have not been able to co-teach somewhere to get a feel for it. It was fun doing it on Thanksgiving day with people I knew but they also knew I was improvising and modifiying.

Swiss, where does it hurt? Be careful!! Maybe rest your back for a couple of days and see how you feel. :flowerforyou:
Hoosier, you party girl!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nonstop!!! :laugh:
Sing, glad you had a great time in NYC!! One of these days I will go during the Holidays.
Stiring and Sing, I want to join you on your cleaner eating until Christmas!! How strict is it?? :laugh: When you eat clean Stiring what do you avoid the most??

Have a wonderful day!! :flowerforyou:

:flowerforyou: alf, I sure do wish that I lived close enough to go to your Zumba classes. I really think that my back pain is due to not working. I am back at it this morning and feeling much better.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to work in exercise classes during the holidays? I have begun to miss some of them and I don't want to get out of the habit of going. Actually, a lot of the scheduling problems are due to my daughters' schedules. They are involved in so much and they seem to have to be somewhere at the same time as one of my classes. Now with the holidays coming up there is even less time in my days.

Happy December!

I agree with ALF and Sing I'm going to try to eat clean now through Christmas. I'm reading more of the Eat to Live which I plan to start in the new year and I think I'm going to slowly start increasing my fruits and veggies this month to prepare. Because quite frankly, I can't imagine what my digestive tract would be like if i just immediately starting eating 1 lb of salad, unlimited raw veggies, 1 cup of beans and 4 fruits a day:blushing: Sweets were not a problem for me of the long weekend I actually realized this morning I did not eat any dessert except for a couple bite of squash pie. Now wine and beer:drinker: See I will always choose a nice glass (or 2) of red with some cheese and crackers over desert.

My husband has decided to give up his gym membership this year ( he transferred jobs and now has to drive 20 minutes past our exit to get to the gym). This is actually great news for me because we have decided to sink that money into more equipment for our home gym. Which is great because I think I've narrowed down the problems with my neck to push-ups and planks Obviously I have a fat head:laugh:

Hi everybody!

duffy, I'm happy to hear you've narrowed down the problems on you neck....and that it isn't running!! While planks and push-ups are great, in my opinion, they can be easier substituted with other exercises than something like running can be.

alf, my answer to your question about what I consider eating cleaner during this time pretty much mirrors singfree's answer (since singfree and I seem to be twins separated at birth.....and a few years in age!! :laugh: ) I'm trying to focus on eating more protein (though I still need to keep the carbs somewhat high because of Insanity), and limiting alcohol (my goal is to have a glassof wine only on those evenings when we are attending Christmas functions). Regarding sweets, I'm going to have a couple of cookies/brownies that my family is sending to me when I get them in and put the rest in the freezer to be enjoyed starting on Christmas Eve. We have a few parties to attend between now and Christmas, and my goal is to choose only healthy food options and not give myself the excuse 'Well, it's Christmas' and eat everything in sight.

For the week of Christmas (Christmas thru New Years), my plan is to eat the sweets sent by family members and to enjoy a couple bottles of Korean red wine gifted to us by new Korean friends at Thanksgiving. I love baking and thought about making something special and sweet for that week. But I figure I can bake anytime of the year, and since we are already going to have sweets around, I should opt for baking some other time of the year when I won't be adding my baking to stuff I already have.

I will admit that this plan is going to take all of the willpower, strength and determination I have. I'm feeling a tad blue right now being so far away from my family. Living in an empty house doesn't help (at all!). Good thing I'm enjoying Korea or else I probably would be buried in a bag of peanut butter cups right now! But right now I keep telling myself that I will feel so much better in January if I don't give in to these emotions and serve them food. My goal last January was to make it the very last January in which I needed to diet. And that's a strong motivator for me right now.

So I've made it through three days of the second month of Insanity. Boy, my legs are fried!!! Today is a 'recovery' day, which I need right now. I'm enjoying it, though not as much as the first month. While the workouts are harder, they don't seem to flow as well for me as those during the first month. That being said, they are effective. I'm really beginning to notice the difference in my cardio conditioning. I'm also trying to fit in P90X workouts when I get a chance to keep my upper body in some sort of condition (with tubing, not weights). I've lost alot of my muscle tone over the past month, but I'm sure if I keep eating healthy and keep my weight down that it will come back quickly when I do start lifting weights again.

So....off to do my recovery workout. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day. My day (Wednesday) is just starting now!

Happy Monday everybody! I hope everybody enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.

twin2, good to see you. I hope you can figure out a way of taking time for yourself. It does seem like alot of parents (mothers in particular) get lost in their role in the family, so I hope you can carve out a few hours a week just for you. It's so important to do that. Great job on the weight loss!


I hope everybody has a great day!

Thanks! I have been trying to figure that out but........ I thought I might get in a trip or two to the gym this week but no, with regular things going on we know we have Christmas "stuff" to do too. I will try to keep in better touch though. I did keep the two pounds off so I am very thankful for that!
I hope every one has a great week!
Rhonda