What I've Learned so Far about My Body

Most of my friends and family know that I've been on LA Weight Loss for the past seven months. I have averaged 1.5 pounds of loss a week, which is slightly slower than most people on the program due to being a vegetarian. I've lost a total of 34.6 pounds so far, and my goal is only 6 pounds away! I'm amazed at how much I've learned about weight loss and taking care of myself. Here is what I've learned so far about my OWN body... maybe it will work for you!




1. I react poorly to any salt. This is salt in pizza dough, on saltines and Wheat Thins, and definitely added salt on eggs or vegetables. I have only used Lite Salt by the 1/4 teaspoon in large recipes as they call for it, and I never add salt to my food. Any time I have something with salt on it, say, 10 small tortilla chips on New Year's, my body gains over a pound in water weight to try and cleanse itself of the salt. I now buy reduced fat Triscuits instead of Wheat Thins and canned goods that are salt-free because they have less sodium.


2. I react poorly to things with fat in them. If the only unusual thing I've eaten is regular fat sour cream instead of reduced fat or fat free sour cream, my body will gain at least half a pound from it. I only eat reduced fat sour cream, butter, peanut butter, milk, yogurt, and soup. (If I ever eat soup, it's almost always so high in sodium!)


3. My body craves activity. I have such a high energy level each and every day, that when I take a day off (one day a week, usually Thursdays) I tend to feel like I'm waiting to work out again. I ask myself, "Are you ok? Don't you need to take a nap? Or maybe eat dinner with your family for once?" I do zumba three days a week and do workout videos three days a week. I ran on Monday for the first time but now that the snow came back I plan on holding off on running again. And to be honest, even though the run felt relatively rewarding, my muscles still ache three days later...


4. I dislike drinking straight, plain water, but yet I crave water! I drink at least four bottles of water a day and most days I drink five. Much of that is tea, but I drink at least two bottles of plain water when I work out. I've stayed away from soda, coffee, and juice. If I have anything with aspartame in it (flavored diet teas or flavored water) I will drink an extra water that day to help clear out my system since it actually makes me retain water! Two things I drink every day are Yogi Tea brand Fasting Tea, which tastes like black licorice, and hot lemon water, which aids in digestion.


5. I need zumba. If there was a zumba class every day, I would go. Scratch that. If I could take zumba with my favorite teachers every day, I would. :)





Most people ask me, "WHAT is ZUMBA?" The easiest answer is that zumba is an aerobic dance class based on several different, usually latin, dances, founded by Beto Perez in 1999. It incorporates salsa, merengue, cumbia, reggaeton, cha-cha, mambo, flamenco, and belly dancing in a fast-paced workout, and most classes run for an hour. It is said that the average person can burn 700 calories in an hour of zumba. Most songs run five minutes long, you GO GO GO and have a blast for those five minutes, and you get a brief break between songs to get a drink of water.




To me, zumba is an outer expression of inner energy and spirit. It is sensual, even sexy at times, but that interpretation is never forced on the people in the room. You are given the framework, the choreography, of the dance and you run with it. A person can add spins, stomps, kicks, twists, more or less hip movements and it is all "zumba". This is unlike an aerobics class where you stick out like a sore thumb if you do something incorrectly. I think zumba is one of the few classes you can take at the gym where nothing is "wrong" with you if you make a mistake. And isn't that something we try and teach our kids, our friends, and our students? It's ok to make mistakes!



I am attaching three videos of my zumba class. These videos were taken last week on Tuesday, February 10, 2009. My teacher is Jill Budde (a goddess) and my full intent is to share the class and share what I am passionate about with my friends and family who read this blog. I have absolutely no complaints in any way, except that the shutter on the lens won't entirely open and the third video got cut short so I can't share all of my samba with you! (So, clearly, no complaints about the class, my teacher, or the Princeton Club. Disclaimer officially over!)



In the footage you will see Jill, the tiny gorgeous blond in the front. You'll see Joe, her husband, all in black with a bandana and a flair all his own that I love. You'll see on Joe's left a guy named Connor, a friend of a friend and now a friend of mine, who is so much fun to dance next to. The girl in the front with the short haircut is a girl from Russia, whose name I have yet to learn, but I watch her throughout class because she is always smiling! I will have to learn her name, she makes me feel so good! Then the pretty girl in the teal shirt and black shorts behind me is Julie, and she has grown so much in the past few months herself--she expresses herself a whole lot more than she used to. Her boyfriend usually comes and he is also a great dancer. She feeds off of me, I feed off of her, Joe and Connor and the other girl in front. We made a triangle originally and now we make an "X" most Tuesdays. Actually, we don't really have a shape... we move around a lot... but we are definitely a powerhouse together! The footage is of some of my favorite zumba songs currently in the line up, and hopefully next Tuesday I'll take footage of my all-time favorite dance, which samples a song by The Jackson Five... Enjoy!

Top: merengue, Middle: reggaeton, Bottom: samba hiphop

One smart girl!

For those of you who don't know, Nadia is a little smartie. She continues to amaze us every day, every week, every moment, with some new word or sign or discovery.



Today was a great day. She woke up early but in a good mood. Bryan got her ready while I slept in a few extra minutes and then took my time getting up. Both of us were sluggish, being a Monday morning and all, and she was a bundle of energy. I gave a call to Jaci, my wonderful mother-in-law, and we decided to go and weigh in again together at LA Weight Loss. Her suggestion was that Nadia would stay at their house with Grandpa while she and I ran our errand. Perfect! Grandpa just got back from a trip and would definitely love to "hang out".



So, I dropped her off, we ran to LA, then to Sentry, and returned to find Grandpa completely enraptured with his granddaughter! Jim was full of stories of the new things he saw, new words and actions he had yet to hear and see, and he was just giddy with all things Nadia. We shared our stories of the latest things we noticed, including all the things that had just recently happened while he was out of town!



And of course, as our time ended, the three of us realized Miss Nadia was sleepy. She helped put her books and toys away, was patient in getting into her "warm clothes" as I call them, and we got in the car and headed home. This was all very cute, but the best part of our morning was yet to come.



We pulled into our driveway and I could hear Nadia say, "side" for "outside". I said, "Yes, honey, we have to go outside." I opened the door and leaned in, grabbed the bag of groceries from the driver's side of the car, with just enough time to hear her say, "Hi!" I went to the other side of the car to get Nadia and my purse, and she tells me, "buckle" and "up" as I bring her out of the car. As she reaches my hip, she tells me "beep! beep!" and points at my keys. I hand her the keys and point to the button that locks the door and sets the alarm. I say, "ok, you do the beep beep" and she pushes the button once to lock the car door. Then I ask, "Again?" and she leans forward, take the keys in her hands, and pushes the button a second time to set the alarm! We get inside the house, and I let her climb the stairs as she says, "up" over and over again with each step. She gets to the top, turns around, and tells me "nigh-night"... I say, "Ok, honey, you go to your room, Momma will meet you there." I put the bag of groceries in the front corner of the kitchen as she walks down the hallway to her room. As I round the corner and look in, I see she is patiently waiting at the end of her crib for me.



She gives me the sign for "clothes" which was telling me to take off her winter suit. She says, "up, please" and I pick her up. I grab her blanket and her binkie (that awful binkie!) and start to sing, "Leaving on a Jet Plane" Peter, Paul and Mary-style. She looks me square in the eyes and puts her fingers gently to my mouth. (Ok, I'll stop singing!) I immediately stop, mid-phrase, and lay her down in the crib. I put the blanket up to her chin, and with binkie in her mouth, she tells me "Thank you". She fell asleep immediately.



Are you crying yet? I am!


Here are some things she has learned this week:


--"Jaci" for Grandma Jaci. The best timing of this was when she screamed it into the office at LA Weight Loss while Grandma Jaci was talking to a counselor!


--"Teese" for Therese. She pulled this out, as well as the sign we created for Therese, in the car on the way to Cottage Grove. We said, "No, honey, we're not on the way to see Auntie Therese." I called her right away to see if Nadia would keep saying it, and she could barely hear it through the phone but she kept it up!


--"LOUIE!" We spent last Friday night at George and Lisa's and Nadia had a lot of fun with all the little doggies, even yelling for Louie each time he ran away!


--"wi-wi" for wipe, which Nadia can now do for herself if she makes something "messy" (thank you, Jaci, for showing me this!)


--she has figured out how to go DOWN stairs finally! She does not like to go backwards, she likes to sit on each one, and say "sit" and then put her feet down so she can "slide" to the next.


--This morning she told me "pee!" and I said, "Ok, let's go to the bathroom!" She pointed to the toilet, lifted the lid, and just looked in... I don't know if this meant she had a pee diaper or not! But I am definitely going to get the potty and a pair of "pretty panties" this week! Nadia knows the difference between poop and pee and tells me what she has in her diaper before I go to open it. This is good, except for when she has wet poop and tries to tell me it's pee... Then I'm just disappointed I don't get to change an easy diaper!


Remember, Nadia is only 16 months old!


We are so incredibly blessed to have Nadia in our lives. She continues to awe and amaze us and we are so very lucky to be surrounded by her love and energy.