Closer to Closing

My divorce decree came in the mail yesterday! The last thing I need to do is write a letter explaining why I still have an Indiana drivers license. The truth of the matter is that the picture on my Indiana license is good. Do you know how hard it is to take a good drivers license picture? This is the first good one I've ever had. But I think that the letter I write will say something like I wasn't sure that I was going to make South Carolina my permanent residence until I decided to buy this house and I'm going to get a new license as soon as I close on the house...which is mostly true. I'll e-mail the decree and the letter to my mortgage broker today and they'll submit the loan for final approval to the USDA on Monday or Tuesday. This means I will close in the second week of May. The sooner the better! I can't wait!

8 Seconds of Doom

Hi Everyone! Today I'm going to do a variation of traditional HIIT on a recumbent bike. Here is the protocol that I use:

Warm Up
3 min: moderate pace pedaling

Intervals: 3-15 minutes (9-45 rounds)
8 sec: flat out max effort sprint pedaling
12 sec: moderate pace pedaling

Cool Down
5 min at a moderate pace

If you want to read about the science behind it, my friend MariAnne Anderson wrote about it in her article 8 Seconds of Glory.

If you've ever done this you know that there is nothing glorious about it. If you push yourself hard, it's a gut wrenching, ass-busting, make you wish you'd never tried it cardio blitz. On the bright side, it's only takes 11-23 minutes to complete of which only 3-15 minutes is really awful; it all depends on how much torture you can endure. I'll update later with how many intervals I was able complete today.

Update: 3 minute warm up, 8 minutes of intervals (24 rounds), 9 minute cool down (I was reading a magazine :).

Kiss My Tight Ass Workout

The Kiss My Tight Ass Workout looks brutal, but I'm going to push myself super hard today and tackle my fear of the One Leg Burpee. The only modification I'm making to the workout is the length of the rest interval. I don't have someone to count my reps, so I changed the rest interval from 5 to 10 seconds so that I can write them down. This makes the workout 20 minutes long, instead of the original 18 minutes.

20 minutes, 24 rounds of 40:10 intervals, repeat the following 3 times:
1) Dynamic Squats
2) Sumo Push Ups
3) One Leg Bridge - left
4) One Leg Bridge - right
5) One Leg Burpee - left
6) One Leg Burpee - right
7) Prisoner Get Up
8) Tricep Leg Lift

Wish me luck! I'll post my scores for all 3 rounds later.

Finished this workout last night. It could have just as easily been called "Kiss My Tight Abs" because my core was on fire by the end of it! One Leg Burpees are so hard on my poor weak right leg! Here are my scores:

Round 1 - 24, 12, 25, 25, 6, 5, 6, 26

Round 2 - 20, 10, 22, 23, 5, 4, 6, 24

Round 3 - 17, 8, 22, 22, 5, 4, 6, 26

I finished off the night with 20 minutes of walking at a moderate pace on the treadmill. Gotta burn off those liberated FFAs before they reestrify back on my tight ass!

My Living Situation

Unfortunately, I'm not going to close on the house before the end of the month. If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm waiting on my divorce decree from Colorado Vital records - that should be here sometime this week. Also, something is wrong with the termite bond - like there was previous damage, but it's been repaired and the letter doesn't say that. And then there's the fact that the letter from the contractor sounds like a 3rd grader wrote it. I'm calling a certified structural engineer out to the house to have a look at it. I don't trust these people!

So, I rented a storage today and started filling it with boxes. Wooooopieeeee! I'm going to move all the little stuff this week, rent a truck this weekend, and bribe my students with a weekend review session in exchange for helping me load and unload my stuff. Is that bad? I'd ask my colleagues, but if I close in 2 weeks I'll need to ask them to help then - and I don't want to ask them twice.

Come Sunday, I will officially be homeless. Woot! I figure I can sleep in the back of the car and shower at the gym. I'm joking. I'll rent a hotel room - one of those seedy weekly motels. Who knows, maybe I'll get to meet a modern day Southern Charles Burkowski.

18 Minute S&M Workout

Get your mind out the gutter! That's the 18 minute Sweat and Muscles Workout. Geesh! This workout is almost a year old (or older). It's all body weigh and it was easy to modify.

18 minutes, 60:30 intervals, 3 rounds of the following:

60 sec Prisoner Squat & Knee Up
30 sec Push Ups
60 sec High Knees
30 sec Burpees with Push Up
60 sec Side Lunge with Touch Down
30 sec Mountain Climbers
60 sec Leg Lift
30 sec Side Lunge Jump

Here are my scores:
Round 1 - 12, 10, 50, 4, 12, 8, 12, 7
Round 2 - 12, 9, 45, 5, 14, 8, 13, 8
Round 3 - 11, 10, 40, 4, 17, 8, 15, 8

Comments - I found it difficult to stay on task and write my scores down. If I had it to do over again - I would have made the intervals 60:40 so that I'd have a built in 10 seconds to write down my scores every two exercises. I'm sure that I could have done more Burpees if I'd had the whole 30 seconds to do them. Now, if you had someone to write down your scores, then it would be fine the way that it is. Also, I only count one rep for anything that is done to both sides. So, for example, squat and right knee up + squat and left knee up = 1 rep. Finally, I can do 10 push ups in a row again! Even 6 weeks ago I could only do 5-6 in a row. Woot!

Tight Cheeks Workout

Today I'm doing the Tight Cheeks Workout.

18-20 minutes, 4 exercises

Part 1 - 4 minutes, 6 Rounds of 10:30 Intervals, max effort
1) Sandbag Swings (alternating arms)

Part 2 - ?? minutes, (4-6 minutes, I'm guessing)
2) 25 Reps (each leg) One Leg Half-Squats with Balance Ball

Part 3 - 4 minutes, 6 Rounds of 10:30 Intervals, max effort
3) Forward/Backward Lunge (alternating legs)

Part 4 - 6 minutes, 6 Rounds of 5:25 Intervals, max effort
4) Balance Ball Combo for Butt & Core

I'm going to follow up with 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill at a moderate pace. As usual, an update with my scores will follow when I'm done with it.

Done! Here are today's scores:
Round 1 - 15, 15, 15, 14, 13, 14
comments: done with 18lb "core ball"

Round 2 - 2:10 right leg, 1:40 left leg
comments: done with 18 lb "core ball," very hard to balance on my right leg

Round 3 - 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4
comments: done with 18 lb "core ball"

Round 4 - 3, 5, 3, 6, 3, 6, 3, 7, 3, 7, 3, 4, 8
comments: 5 sec time interval too short for switching positions, if I had it to do over I would use 10:30 intervals

My Buns Hurt Workout

I'm tackling my fear of the My Buns Hurt Workout. I'll be modifying it, as usual, because I'm old and need a few replacement parts. I'm kinda scared. We'll see how my ankle holds up to the Rocket Launchers.

?? minutes, 4 exercises

Part 1 - Time Challenge
1) 20 Reps (each side) Sandbag Lunge Press Up & Squat Leg Lift

Part 2 - 4 minutes, 12 Rounds of 5:15 Intervals, max effort
2) Rocket Launchers

Part 3 - Time Challenge
3) 20 Reps Kick Ups

Part 4 - 4 minutes, 12 Rounds of 5:15 Intervals, max effort
4) Mountain Climbers

I'll update later with my scores for parts 1 and 2. No skipping for me afterward - I'll walk the dogs instead.

Done! Here are my scores.
Round 1 - 5:51
comments: 20 lb db for 1st 10, no weight for 2nd 10

Round 2 - 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4
comments: these were more like mini launchers at the end, lol.

Round 3 - 4:35
comments: no room for the spinning part, so I did a set, waited 4 breaths, did a set, etc.

Round 4 - 13, 10, 7, 5, 9, 9, 6, 8, 8
comments: I only made it though 9 of 12 rounds, my legs just wouldn't move.

Now, where are those dogs?

Good Ole' Fashion HIIT

For those of you who don't know, HIIT = high intensity interval training. Body Rock sometimes feels like HIIT x 10. The latest Body Rock workout looks like it would feel this way. It also involves a lot of jumping, which is out for me because of my right knee and ankle. Workouts like this I sometime replace with another Body Rock workout, but other times I replace them with HIIT on an elliptical or stationary bike. This lets me keep the the intensity of the Body Rock workouts without hurting myself.

For a great article on the benefits of HIIT, read this article by my good friend and author MariAnne Anderson.

The gym at work has an elliptical I like. It's a CYBEX 750. The resistance has settings from 1-100 (I think) and it has handles so it's a full body workout. A common criticism of doing HIIT more than once or twice a week is that it leads to over training the legs. The CYBEX is still an intense leg workout, but it hits the major upper body muscle groups, too.

Here is what I have planned.

TIME @ RESISTANCE
WARM UP - 5 minutes
60 sec @ 20
120 sec @ 25
120 sec @ 30

INTERVALS - 12 ROUNDS - 18 minutes
30 sec:60 sec @ 30

COOL DOWN - 12 minutes
180 sec @ 25
240 sec @ 20
300 sec @ 15

The reason my cool down is so long is so that I can burn off any pesky free-fatty acids that have been liberated by the HIIT.

Abode on Laurel

I heard from my real estate agent yesterday and the seller is fixing just about everything that is wrong with the house this week. I'll close the first week of May. The seller is spending about $3300 on repairs. This includes: replacing the galvanized pipe with new PVC piping, fixing a leak over the carport, laying down a moisture barrier under the house, installing additional vents to air out the crawl space, installing a fan in the crawl space to keep it dry, and reinforcing the piers on the left side of the house to prevent any further sinking. What a relief!

<\begin drama>

As I mentioned in this post, I didn't do my workout over the weekend as planned. I'm chalking it up to one heck of a bad week. A (not so) brief summary of my personal drama.

Monday - Lose my phone.

Tuesday - House inspection is done.

Wednesday - Get into a hair-grabbing, weave-snatching fight with the ex-boyfriend. Not literally, of course, he has no weave...but if he did.

Thursday - Inspection report comes in. There is too much moisture under the house and it looks like the left side piers are sinking. Other than that, pretty minor stuff. It dawns on me that I might be homeless at the end of the month instead of in my new house. =( I also file an insurance claim on the phone. The good news is that they are overnighting it!

Friday - I have a 3pm appointment with the chiropractor - I'm storing ALL of my stress in my upper back and I eat, drink and breathe stress these days. I leave work at 2pm, so that I can swing by home for my new phone. I get home and find that UPS has not left my phone; I must sign for it. I go back to work to call UPS (cause that's the only phone I have) to ask if I can pick it up that evening. NO. The sender didn't make the option available. What? Since when can't you just go pick a package up if you aren't home when it's delievered? Call T-mobile, they say. There's a T-mobile across the street, maybe they can do it faster than I can, automated call centers being what they are. I drive over to T-mobile. Nope, they can't change the delivery options. I must call customer care. It's about 2:30pm by now and the chiropractor's office is a solid 30 minutes away. Total breakdown ensues.

I just remember standing there thinking - I can't go all weekend without a phone! I'd been without a phone all - and a crappy one at that - week and I've had no one to talk to about it! Tears flooded my face. A very kind lady at T-mobile, Donna, bless her heart, called T-mobile for me, then got the insurance company on the line, and stayed on the phone with them to get the pick-up option changed while I left for my 3pm appointment, for which I was 30 minutes late.

I spent the entire drive to my appointment crying. I think, I'm supposed to close on the house by the end of the month and now that's not going to happen. I'm sitting in the car, stuck in traffic, thinking of how sucky my current living situation is. How I can't stay even one day past the end of the month. How I must get out no matter what the cost. How I'm going to be homeless at the end of the month because my perfect little house isn't perfect after all. I think, 'ef it, I'll pack my things in a moving truck and live out of it. I think 'ef it, I'll quit my job, pack my things in a moving truck and leave SC. And I cry and I cry and I cry.

I show up to my appointment red faced, eyes swollen, still crying.

<\end drama>

I realize now that everything is going to be OK, but I did spend the weekend obsessing about it - instead of working out (which would have helped with the stress, I know). I did, thanks to Donna, get to pick up my phone that evening. Even if I can't move into my house at the end of the month, I have a friend with a warehouse who said I could store my things in it until I do close on a house. My current living situation will be rectified by the end of the month. Even if it means I have to go live in a seedy weekly rate motel for a few weeks - at least then I'll get to sleep in a bed every night. The current owners of the house had a contractor out on Monday to look at the problems with the foundation and I should hear back from them by tomorrow. If they really want to sell the house, they are going to have to fix whatever is wrong with it one way or another, so they may just do it now - it just means I might have to wait a little longer to close.

It's times like this that I just need to remind myself that things, as craptastic as they seem now, have, in fact, been worse. I have lived through worse than this and come out stronger and better for it.

It's Hot In Here Workout (updated)

I went to see Dr. Mike yesterday, my chiropractor, and there is no workout after a Dr. Mike visit. Too sore from all the soft tissue work. But I'm back at it today, with Zuzana's workout from yesterday: It's Hot In Here Workout

?? minutes, Full Body Workout, 3 Exercises

Part 1 - Time Challenge
1) 20 Reps Sandbag Step Up Combo (without sandbag)

Part 2 - 3 minutes, 6 Rounds, 30:10 intervals, max
1) Pike Jump & Push Up

Part 3 - Time Challenge
1) 50 Crab Toe Touches

So, I didn't get to this workout last weekend as planned. More on that in another post though.

I was going to do this workout this afternoon, but none of the chairs in the house are sturdy enough for Part 1 - so I'm going to do it tonight at work when no one else is there.

Instead, I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon. Mojo has a bit more pep in his step - hopefully his doggy T3/T4 meds are starting to kick in. I feel bad for him towards the end though - black fur in the Carolina Sun and heat. I wet him down to cool him off, but it doesn't seem to help all that much.

I did the workout, finally!
Round 1 - 6:46
Round 2 - 4, 3, 2, 0, 3, 2
Round 3 - 3:34

There will most definitely be more Body Rockin' tomorrow.

Body Rock, Body Rock, Body Rock

Can you tell I'm really into this?

I don't know exactly when my first Body Rock workout was, but I can narrow it down to 5 weeks ago, March 7 - March 11. I used to write my workouts on little scraps of paper and not keep track of anything. Just this month I bought a journal and starting keeping careful track of my progress. I wish I had mapped my progress from that first week, because I know that in 5 short weeks, I've come a long way. I only weigh myself once, maybe twice a week at most. Honestly, my weight hasn't changed much since I started, but I feel better, stronger and leaner already. My clothes are slowly but surely starting to loosen up a bit.

I love that Zuzana says to not go by the scale alone; it doesn't tell the whole story. Go by how you feel, how your clothes fit, and how you look in the mirror, too. However, I think it's easy to lose sight of where you've been and where you're going when the changes are daily and so incremental. So, I've decided to start taking progress pics . I'm still deciding if I'm going to do this weekly, or every two weeks, but I'm going do it. Again, it's one of the changes I'm making to my life when I move into the new house. I'd start taking pictures now, but I want to take them in the same spot with the same lighting each week. As soon as I have 4 pics, I'm going to start posting them here. This way, I'll have my journal to see how much stronger and faster I'm getting, and the pics to see myself lean out over time. No making fun of the pasty!

Fat Destroyer Workout

You may have noticed that I modify nearly all of Zuzana's workouts and that I don't do them in the order that she posts them. Often I have to modify the workouts to work around my injuries, that's just a fact of life. Other times it's because I don't have the equipment. Some of my first purchases when I move into the new digs will be a dip station, pull up bar, and sandbag. I'd order them now, but then I'd have to move it all.

Today I am doing my version of the Fat Destroyer Workout.

20 minutes, 5 exercises, 4 rounds of 50:10 intervals

1) Squat & Twisted Knee Up
2) Tricep Push Up & Leg Lift (alternating legs)
3) One Leg Get Up & Knee Up (left leg)
4) One Leg Get Up & Knee Up (right leg)
5) Burpee Knee Raises (using chairs!)

Here are my scores for today:
1) 17, 13, 14, 13
2) 10, 9, 7, 9 (some off knees for the last round)
3) 16, 16, 14, 11
4) 13, 16, 13, 10
5) 4, 5, 5, 4

Microscope Up The Arse

Apparently, if you've filed for bankruptcy and you're getting a government loan on your house, this gives the feds permission to look up your arse with a microscope. I turned in my loan application and the underwriter came back with a list of 13 things I needed to provide them. 13!

This list included things such as: a signed letter explaining why I pay Toyota $500 a month and not $310 like my credit report says. Um, I want to pay it down early. That's legal, right?

And things such as: explain the $930 deposit to your bank account on March 25th. Um, that was my tax return from the federal government less the $40 in fees I paid to the company that filed it. You know, it says right next to it on the statement "FED." Well, now I need a receipt for filing my taxes. To prove that the $40 was paid to the tax company. Really? You can't just look at my federal return which says $970 and take my word for it?

Hard Bodies Getting Harder Workout

Today's workout is a modification of the Hard Bodies Getting Harder Workout. I can't do the Ninja Jumps (cause of my lard-butt or something, lol) and One Legged Burpees are out of the question because of my ankle. So, here is my modified version for the older, weaker, and fatter. :)

Time Challenge, ?? minutes, 5 exercises, 5 rounds of:

10 Sumo Squat with Leg Lift
20 Elevated Bridge Leg Lift (10 each side)
5 Dynamic Push Ups
20 One Arm One Leg Bridge (alternating sides)
10 Burpees

I'll update later with my time. Wish me luck!

Update: It turns out that One Arm One Leg Bridges are a lot harder than Zuzana makes them look! I did 4 and quickly found them to be too hard. I was falling all over the place, lol. As a result, I modified the rest of that round and the next, doing 10 One Arm Bridges (alternating arms) and 10 One Leg Bridges (alternating legs). By the end of the 2nd round I knew that the One Leg Bridges were harder for me, so I did the last 3 rounds as One Leg Bridges.

My total time for this workout was 20:15. Whew!

Dive Bomber Exercise Challenge

I'm really taxed from yesterday's Survivor Workout. My legs and glutes are really sore, but it's a good sore. Pistol Squats (One Legged Squats) are a killer! I don't know how Zuzana does it free standing; I have to do it in a doorway to help keep my balance and help myself up. Ultimately though, this is one of the things I love about Body Rock - you can adjust the exercises to your fitness level very easily. That, and since I do the workouts at home, I never feel self conscious about my own fitness level.

So, because my legs are so wiped out from yesterday's workout out, I'm doing an upper body focused exercise challenge today. Here is the link: Dive Bombers

10 minutes, 1 Exercise, Max Effort
Dive Bomber Push Ups - 20 from my toes, 32 from my knees.


I'll also take the dogs for a 2.25 mile walk later today. It takes around 45-50 minutes, depending on how slow Mojo is!

The House

This is totally going to be my little (2300 square foot) sanctuary and I can't wait to close on it, move in, and start making it mine. I might even close on it before the end of the month.

Here is a shot from the curb. The roof looks blue, but it's not, it's black and only 1 year old. Honestly, this picture doesn't do it justice at all. When I got the bank's appraisal back and looked at the comps - well, all I have to say is that this house has so much more curb appeal. I can wait to start planting flowers and making it even better.

Here is a shot of the living room and fireplace. If you can believe it, there is a second fireplace right off the dining room and kitchen, but it's not gas. I don't know if it works, but I hope so. I miss the smell of wood burning fireplaces from when I lived in Denver and Boulder.

This is the downstairs bedroom. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave it this color or not. It's kind of growing on me though. I've always wanted a Moroccan inspired bedroom, but that kind of theme doesn't fit the personality of this house at all. I've never been a big fan of cottage style, but that's really what this house is.

I think the cottage styling of the house becomes even more apparent when you look at the kitchen. The kitchen and the bathrooms are what need an update more than anything. I think the best part of having 2.5 bathrooms is that I'll be able to tear one apart and redo it and still have another to use in the meantime!

The inspection is tomorrow afternoon and I'll be taking some of my own pictures then, so there will more to come.

Survivor Workout - Take Two

This is the workout that I have planned for today and it also happens to be the very first Body Rock workout that I ever attempted. I made it through Round 1 of this workout the first time and that was it. I lied down on the floor, sweat dripping off of me, gasping for air, thinking "This B***H is CRAZY." Over a month later, I'm attempting it again. Here is the workout break down. Wish me luck!

Total workout time: 15 minutes

Part 1 - 5 minutes, 5 rounds of 50:10 intervals
1) Backward Lunge Kick Up (left leg)
2) Backward Lunge Kick Up (right leg)
3) One Arm Press Up (alternating arms)
4) 2 Kick Ups & Breakdance Push Up
5) Pike Jump & Squat

Part 2 - 5 minutes, countdown
1) Pistol Squats (alternating legs)

Part 3 - 5 minutes, repeat Part 1

This workout has been modified from the original to work around my injuries. If you are interested, you can find the original workout at Zuzana's site: Survivor Workout

I did it, I did it! It made me feel like I might die, but I did it. Here are my scores.
Round 1: 18, 18, 8, 5, 10
Round 2: 34
Round 3: 15, 16, 7, 4, 8

The Body Rocker's Creed

This is my body. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My body is my best friend. It s my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My body, without me, is useless. Without my body, I am useless. I must move my body true. I must run faster and be stronger than my enemy that is trying to overcome me. I must conquer it before it conquers me. I will...My body and myself know that what counts in this life is not the size of our clothes, the shape of our figure, nor societies standard of beauty. We know that it is the experiences that count. We will live...My body is living, as a part of me, and through it I experience life. Thus, I will learn it as a friend. I will learn its weaknesses, it's strengths, its parts, its movements, and its possibilities. I will ever guard it against the ravages of judgment and damage as I will ever guard my heart against damage. I will keep my body clean and ready. I will accept it as it is and as a part of me. I will...Before the world, I swear this creed. My body and I are the defenders of my life. We are the masters of our obstacles. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is mine and there are no regrets, but a life well lived

- Zuzana, Body Rock

Body Rock

About a month after I quit smoking, a friend from work introduced me to this web site: Body Rock. I perused the web site and thought "No way am I ever going to do something like this." It goes against everything I've been taught about getting in shape and it looks like hell. A month and a half after my first (hellish) Body Rock workout, I'm hooked. I will never go back to traditional weight lifting. Here's why:
- I don't need a gym membership to Body Rock. Which means I don't have to spend $600 a year on a gym membership.
- The equipment you need to do all of the Body Rock workouts is minimal, costs less than a $600, and you'll have it for the rest of your life.
- Body Rock workouts are almost exclusively body weight exercises.
- Most Body Rock workouts take anywhere from 10-20 minutes to complete. Maybe once a week they take longer than that. When I was lifting, even if the workout was only 45 minutes, I had to drive to the gym, warm up, lift, wait for equipment, cool down, and drive home. Almost without fail this would eat up 1.5-2 hours of my day no matter how efficient I was in the gym. Now it takes me less than an hour to warm up, workout, and cool down. And I don't have to waste gas in car to do it, so it's better for the environment, too!
- Body Rock workouts make me sore, but not to the point of feeling like I've injured myself.
- In the little over a month I've been doing Body Rock, I've seen better results than I did after months of lifting. No joke.
- The workouts are constantly changing. This means that I'm never bored and better yet, neither is my body.
- Zuzana (from the Body Rock site) is adorable and such huge inspiration. I love her attitude, her no nonsense commitment to getting and staying in shape, and her sane approach to eating for the best you.

More posts to follow and Body Rock, including the Body Rocker's creed and my workouts.

Starting Anew

I mentioned in the dedication that this year is proving to be a year of renewal for me. I want to list the ways in which I feel like my life has and is improving significantly this year.

- I quit smoking! I don't even know what my quit date was, but it was over 2 months ago now. I feel like this is the first time that I have ever quit for me and I'm thrilled. I no longer cough myself awake at night. I love that my mouth still feels clean when I wake up in the morning. I love that I don't smell like smoke any longer.

- I'm leaving an unhealthy relationship - and I don't have another man waiting in the wings.

- I've started a new exercise program! I've lifted weights on and off for years. At the beginning of the semester, I started back in the gym again, but it just didn't feel right any longer. It's hard to explain. Maybe it's getting older or something, but when I went back this time, I didn't feel like a was doing my body good - I felt like I was damaging it. About the same time, a colleague of mine introduced me to a new way of doing things. It took me awhile to get my head around it, but now I'm hooked. I'll put up a post soon on my new way of looking at exercise - it deserves it's own post!

- I've started to look differently at how I eat. Anyone who knows me also knows that I've struggled with an bulimia for a long time. As a result, I can't diet - at least not in the traditional sense. As soon as I try to tell myself that this or that food is forbidden, I want it. It took me years to realize that feeling hungry isn't a problem for me, but feeling deprived is. At any rate, along with my new exercise regimen, I have a new outlook on food as well and I can't wait to tell you about it.

- I'm buying my first house! I'm so excited to finally have a place to call my own. I close sometime toward the end of the month and I can't wait to post pictures and tell you about all the projects I have planned.

- I've been doing more research at work and it feels great. I was so burnt out on it when I first took my position that I couldn't bring myself to do it. Most of the research involves undergraduates - which is a huge paradigm shift for me, but I'm loving it more and more.

So often I have caught myself thinking that I'm too old to start anew - that all those opportunities have passed by in my youth. I'm just discovering that it is never to late to start fresh and remake your mind, body and soul.

Blog Dedication

I realize that most people start with this kind of thing at the beginning of the new year, but I figure there is no time like the present to start anew. So many things have already happened to make this a year of renewal and I wanted a forum to share it with my friends and family.

Formally this blog served as a gym log, a place for me to vent about my struggles with bulimia, my relationships, etc. Previous instantiations were so narrow that I often gave up on it.

I'm dedicating this blog to the whole me and to all the women out there who are more than the sum of their parts, to the brainy, beautiful, and brawny women out there who inspire me to live a life well lived.

Cheers!