My Trip to Outer Space

Hello again my friends! I'm back from Seattle, Montana, Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Technically some of those stops were momentary but I feel like I've been all over the western United States nonetheless. I am feeling like I accomplished a lot of what I set out to do when I decided to go stay with my dad in Billings Montana for a month. The first thing I did? You guessed it! I went down to the local health club and paid way too much for a month membership. I've never been one for negotiating price on goods and services as some of you may already know. Anyway my membership was for a club called Granite Health and Fitness. Nice facility, clean and up to date on equipment. My only complaint... ghost town! I understand the appeal of a nice quiet gym for a lot of people. Waiting for a machine can really cramp your style and heart rate/momentum, but I really like the busyness of a gym full of people. There's an energy and buzz that gets me going when a gym is busy. Every day I went in expecting there to be more that 4 grandmas on treadmills and two guys lazily curling dumbbells. Does no one care about fitness in Montana? The answer is yes, they just get their kicks outdoors. Speaking of outdoors, I think my appreciation for the beauty of Montana took me ten years to realize. This place is really a heaven in it's own right. They don't call it Big Sky Country for nothin' but what they really should call it is Beautiful Sky. Here are the things you don't realize you miss about Montana that you don't get in LA until you have been away for a while: thunderstorms with lightening, cloud formations that shift and change all day, a sun that doesn't set until 10:00 at night in the summer, and silence when you sleep. I came at the rainiest time of year and by the time all the storms passed it left our little city in the valley as green as the umbrellas at Starbucks.
Working with my dad is like admiring someone while simultaneously wanting to rip your hair out. One day in particular I jotted this down in my note pad, "I wish I had all the strength in the world to give to my dad. He works harder than anyone I know half his age. When I think about my childhood with my dad the first thing I remember is standing and listening. With my dad it's always, 'one more stop, we just have to talk to so and so'. To explain about my dad, first I have to explain about him as a man. I know that most little girls have an idealistic notion of who their parents are. We grow up with super heroes and I'm here to tell you that, to me, my dad is amongst the ultimate. Growing up in Salt Lake CIty as a non mormon in the 1960's is no small feat in and of itself. I think in his own way my dad was always an odd ball. Odd ball, he loves that word to describe someone with eccentricity. As if a man with 100 motorcycles isn't eccentric in his own right. At the age of 16 he auditioned for the Utah symphony for their most successful conductor; Maurice Abrovonel. When he tells the story we prop ourselves up on our elbows and listen with the utmost attention. 'were you nervous?!' we would ask. To which he would reply 'Oh no, I was too stupid to be nervous' 2917 Ramada Drive" right at the end dad says "quick write this down!" My dad has worked out his whole life in whatever garage space he had that wasn't dedicated to motorcycles and covered in grease spots. I think I get my energetic go getter attitude from him.
Now that I'm home Montana feels like lifetimes ago. I'm back to my busy gym grind and hunting down a job that suits me. My life is changing and evolving in front of my eyes and I have big plans for it! I want to do something that my dad would be proud of, something worth writing about. Stay tuned guys...Imma do BIG things!

Country Girl, City Girl

Hello Again!
I'll skip the whole, "Sorry it's been so long I've been really busy bla bla bla" Although I guess I still had to put it in there ;)
Where were we? Where it all started! Fitness baby! First let me tell you about how I got hoaxed into attending an Herbalife meeting in Inglewood then I'll tell you about my upcoming journey home to Montana.
Up until this moment in time I have been slaving away at a gym. Great right? Inspiring people to get healthy and teaching those who know not what I know...not exactly. More like hounding money, hiring, firing, training teens to be responsible and listening to complaints like, "Your Jacuzzi is at 103 and it should be at least 104!" So I guess things are never as they initially appear. 5am to 7pm also not for me. So what did I do? I quit! I didn't find a better opportunity with fewer hours and more money I just told them I was done. No plan. No savings. Oh go roll your eyes somewhere else, I was miserable!
My supportive friends and family all agree with a resounding "Good for you!" I'm shaking in my Nikes. On the job hunt I go. What do I want to do when I grow up? Where do I see myself in 5 years? These are the questions swirling my brain these days. Forget I'm months from my 29th birthday and according to society pretty much a grown up. Forget every nay sayer who thinks I made a huge mistake. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders albeit I do still have the pesky money weight pressing down.
For the past week I've fruitlessly searched Craigslist, Careerbuilder and Monster.com for anything and everything I think I could do/would like to do. It's hard to search for something when you don't know what you're looking for. Nevertheless I did come across an ad that sparked my interest for a "health coach". No experience necessary. Sound too good to be true? It is. The interview was a workout in a park nearly an hour from my house. Well I can't just sit around and do nothing all day! The workout was rudimentary but the pitch was great. Sell a great product to people you know and make a profit. Get them to sell also and you will make money not even doing anything! I was ready to sell Herbalife faster than I was dialing to order my tornado mop (if you don't know what the tornado mop is I feel sorry for you). This, by the way, is the second meeting I have had in two weeks regarding multi-level marketing. There's something so appealing about not having to slave so hard for every dollar, working for myself and making real money. *Sigh* too good to be true.
The next day I'm on the phone with my dad and he's telling me about a big job he has coming up, the biggest ever in fact. "Oh can't I just come work for you for a month daddy?" He said "I'd love that!" and there it is. The flight is booked and a week from tomorrow I'll be back in my home town. I'll keep you apprised of my fitness endeavors in Montana and any other happs I find noteworthy.
Tata for now!

Ready Go

Here we are again. You're reading, I'm typing. Where does the time go? It's been over 3 months since my last entry! Tonight might be more of a free write so bear with me if I veer astray.
Frankly, I'm terrified. Far off in the distance is where I want my life to head. I'm slowly building a bridge to get myself there but it seems like it's made of popsicle sticks! I think when I moved to L.A. I had in mind how I thought this would all pan out. I was going to take a risk of epic proportions! I was managing a restaurant in Utah and thinking, "I can't do this anymore!" I needed to get out of my rut. Out of Utah, out of the restaurant. Here I am nearly two years later in California but still managing a restaurant. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for my job, I'm comfortable. I make enough money to be stable and the day in day out of my job is tolerable. But I wan't more! I work ten hours a day doimg something I no longer have passion for. I tread water and wait for something to happen. As I look down this hallway that is soon to be my thirties (eek!) I think, "where am I now?"
Here is what I know: Every day I am in the gym I feel like I'm at home. I know that some of you may not get it. I recently read a quote from a celeb magazine that read, "I hate when people say they love working out. Nobody loves working out." Well I do. And I'm pretty sure Richard Simmons is still really into it too. I want to go to work at a gym. I want to train people how to improve their health, bodies, self image, the list goes on and on. I've spent my entire gym rat life skeptical of personal trainers. I'll be the first to say some of them are a waste of time and money. I also spent a spell of time wandering around my own gym feeling self conscious and insecure. I wished so badly someone would show me how to use that machine in the corner that I couldn't discern from the instructions. I had fitness goals and no one to tell me how to get them accomplished. Does it  matter if you do cardio before weights? Should you workout on an empty stomach? Are carbs really the enemy? I'm not 100% myself now, but I have spent time training with body builders, trainers, fitness professionals and the nutritionally savvy. I feel like I have something to offer. So maybe if I study really hard and seize this precious opportunity I've afforded myself I can get off my booty and go! As soon as I can take the financial risk I'll say sayonara suckers and go do what I have true passion for! Would you hire me?

Summer's over but the workouts never stop

I know I've been off the radar for a spell but now I'm BACK! I might even be better than before but don't get your hopes up. Where have I been you ask? Working, playing, eating, drinking and carrying on.
I'm happy to report that over the summer I did officially master the jump rope. I can criss-cross, dance like a boxer, go backwards as fast as I can go forward and hop from foot to foot in rhythm with my new obsession Kaskade. Give her a try the next time you're at the gym. All you need is "Fire in your New Shoes" the Dragnet remix and you'll completely forget you're working out! Her entire album Dynasty is great for workouts.
My favorite jump rope workout is as follows: 100 straight jumps forward (counted out in twenties), then 100 backwards (counted the same) followed by a minute of rest. Then I do tens of my favorites. Ten straight jumps at a relatively quick speed, ten double hops on each foot alternating, ten straight hope from one foot to the other, and 5 criss-crosses. I do this cycle 5 times and then I fall dead on the floor. Start slow! I reccomend trying to jump in from of a mirror, it helps me keep from swinging my arms too much and jumping to high.

Another major change I added to my workouts are my Five Fingers by Vibram. If you haven't heard of these things you live under a rock and probably don't read blogs. I'll explain in case you haven't anyway. They look like a glove and separate all your toes. The idea of these things is to corrrect the way that we heel strike when we walk and run. It makes you use more of the pads of your feet and they are amazing. My sister got them for me for my birthday and at first I'll admit I was sceptical. They seemed like a gimmick and anyone who knows me knows how much I hate a gimmick. Funny thing is the first day I wore them a woman walked up to me and said, "Where did you get those? Theyre so cute!" I guess in LA if it's in it's cute. Forget that these are on every runners foot at the park, they really do make running a pleasure. Take this as gospel from someone who hates running. I promise as soon as I can I'll put up a video of me jumping rope in my "cute" five fingers. Maybe if enough people "like" this link on Facebook I'll do it sooner than later. Until next time! Stay tuned for my quest to do the splits!

The Return of the Jump Rope

Lately I've been experiencing what is commonly known as a plateau. I catch myself doing the same workouts, lifting the same weights, grouping the same muscles and running for the same amount of time at the same speed. When I try to think back to the last time I made a change in my exercise regiment I am astonished to think that nearly 4 months have gone by with no variations! Am I maintaining my physique and overall health? Yes. But I have seen no improvements to my bod and frankly, aside from changing my music selection, I'm getting pretty bored in the gym. Last week I walked into my gym, took one look at the rows of treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines and StairMasters, turned on my heel and headed out the door. There is a small ally behind my gym that has no traffic and is the perfect distance for sprints. I lunged my way down to the wall where the ally turns and lunged backwards to my starting point. Legs-a-burnin' already! After I felt warm enough for the serious stuff I did my sprints. I went full bore straight for the wall. I keep my upper body leaning forward and try to stay light on my feet. I ran backwards to my start point. After about 20 minutes of this I was pooped but I felt so good. I felt like I had given myself a new challenge to increase the intensity of my cardio workouts, especially since I can't bare the thought of increasing the duration!
Today I bought a jump rope. Let me rewind quickly to one year ago. I'm with my trainer and eager to tackle anything he throws at me. He hands me a jump rope. A little self consciously I give it a try. Whack to the back of the head! Try again. Smack! One more time. It comes around and hits me in the ankle and I nearly trip. At this point I'm done. "I can't do this. I'll do anything but jump rope". That was that, we did everything but. Back to the present, why am I buying a jump rope? Finally, after a year I am ready again for the challenge. But this time I'm doing it in the ally, just in case I repeatedly trip and smack myself with the damn thing. Surprisingly not! I'm remembering the techniques I was taught in elementary school. I'm using my wrists, not my arms and jumping slowly at first with a small jump in between while the rope swings around. I LOVED it. I was panting like a canine in heat after about 20 minutes and feeling like I had done some serious done an hour on the StairMaster. Upon researching further I realized why I felt like my whole body was on fire. Skipping rope burns a whopping 143 calories every 15 minutes for a girl my weight! If you don't think that is significant look and see how many calories your treadmill reads after 45 minutes. If it has been since elementary school since you've swung one of these bad boys I recommend picking one up. I bought mine for $10 at my gym and I'm not stopping until I can do a double under and maybe not even then!
-Whitney

What's in a Number?

Of course I have been buzzing around my head thinking of all the juicy things to write lately in regards to diet and exercise but something came my way today that stopped me dead in my tracks. I know I've already discussed the relevance of the almighty calorie and hate to be redundant, however, this is along that same vane so bear with me. I'm cashiering at my restaurant today drifting in and out of consciessness when I overhear a small exchange between another cashier and two guests.  This is a father/daughter who frequent my place and she is looking in our nutrition book. Not for carbs or sugar or even fat, just calories. Her dad explains, "She's watching her calories. She's doing so well too!" and at this point she interjects, "Yeah! I've lost 3 pounds in 3 weeks!"  Uuuhhhh.... did she just say that? Forgive my negativity but this does not seem to me a very significant weight loss. Firstly, she didn't even look like she needed to lose any weight and secondly, some people lose that in a day just in water!
At any rate this got my wheels turning about all the numbers that we find significant. I want to focus on the number the majority of women seem fixated on. Weight. Who knew a number could cause so much stress and anguish? I haven't weighed myself in over 6 months. Not because I'm so unconcerned and in perfect shape that I don't think I need to. I don't weigh because I, like many others, get fixated on that one number. I applaud my losses even if they are a loss in muscle mass and punish myself for any gains no matter how slight. I could literally weigh an extra 6 pounds if I weighed in at the wrong time of the month, after eating a big meal. Luckily I decided this was an arbitrary measurement and my attention would be better placed in other arenas. Weight to me is like calorie counting, easily measured and standardized. Not the only way to track progress though! What about measurements? Body fat percentages? I have been a notch tighter on my belt and weighed the same as I did one notch out. Explain that! I digress, now I'm ranting. My point is that I wanted to shake this girl and tell her that 3 pounds in 3 weeks is not something to jump up and down about. Effort should always be applauded but I wish people could see beyond the one thing they have decided to get stuck on.I suppose I should be happy that this girl is making a start but cutting calories does not necessarily equal healthier eating habits and if she really is going for only weight loss she better up the ante and start shedding!
-Whitney

Smile! You're on camera.

I while back I was having serious trouble financially. I was spending way beyond my means and "robbing Peter to pay Paul" so to speak. I would swipe my debit card without even looking at the total. If you were to ask me how much I had just spent on a pair of shoes and miscellaneous jewelery I would have had no idea. I paid no mind to price tags and my card never declined, thanks to my good credit. What a slippery slope that is! After receiving a few hints from some friends who know how to budget their money, I decided to switch only to cash. I started paying all my bills with my checking account and paying for everything else in cash. This helped me immensely. If I really wanted something and I didn't have the money for it I would have to drive to an ATM to get the cash for it. Oftentimes by the time I got to the ATM I would have decided that what I wanted wasn't worth the money or that I couldn't really afford it. Not only did I have to see my balance every time I made a withdrawal but I also paid attention to what everything was costing me. Seeing the money actually coming out of my wallet gave me more of a reality on the state of my finances. Okay, so let me get to my point of how I've translated this into dieting. I started taking pictures of everything I eat. Disclaimer: this was not my idea. I took this from a book I'm reading called The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss. I thought this idea was so similar to my cash switcharoo I wanted to share the success I've had with it so far. I've only altered my diet slightly but now I don't eat anything without snapping a shot of it with my BlackBerry first. The biggest changes I have noticed are that I am more aware of the things I snack on and I am more hesitant to eat something I know I shouldn't. I'll grab a treat and remember that I need to take a picture of it and think, "Oh man! I don't want to take a picture of this!". Likewise I have found that when I eat something bad I happen to "forget" to take a picture. Almost all of my dessert pictures are of half-eaten foods! I'm a firm believer in the idea that all changes start small and this is just one thing I am experimenting with on my road to a healthier diet. I hope it helps some of you on your way too!

-Whitney