Day 1 of Abcentric

I just wrote this in the Metamorphosis community, but I thought I'd post here as well.  The diet is not too bad, the soup is pretty awesome and I still have the pudding left to eat.

But, the dance cardio is kind of a joke for me.  I have zero coordination, balance, flexibility and Tracy does not stop to explain movements.  I have a hard time even jumping so the dance cardio is really not for me.  Then I went to the muscle work, again Tracy doesn't stop to explain movements and she moves pretty fast.  The arms and abs were okay, but when it went to being on all fours, I got a lot of pain in my knees.  I've always been sensitive like that, I have no fat on my knees (luckily) so even with a yoga mat, I'm still in pain.  I don't know.  I'm very disappointed.  I want the body of Stacy from the website.

I want her body

I'm thinking about just going back to the old fashioned lifting weights and spinning.  I don't know.  I'm bummed.

Metamorphosis Abcentric

I received the Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis Abcentric in the mail the other day and I'm starting tomorrow.  I meant to start today, but I got up too late and didn't have any of the food made.  But, I went to Whole Foods today and bought the ingredients I need for week one (well for 4 days of week one since my husband has decided to join me on this plan) and I got the juice guy (I kinda love him) to make me the juice for tomorrow.  He basically told me it'd be cheaper to just buy a juicer if I planned to get 2 juices a day made for 7 days at $5 a juice.  He's right I guess, but I wasn't planning on making a $200 purchase this week.  I'm going to see how I feel about the juice tomorrow and then decide.  He told me it was the darkest juice he'd ever made and that I should drink a glass of water after it and also plan to visit the bathroom after (not in those words exactly) great!

The kale, spinach, beet, apple juice.

The food is really time consuming to make, so I'm glad I have it for a few days.  The only thing I didn't do was the apple sauce (I misjudged how many jazz apples I still had at home) I may just buy the all natural apple sauce and add some cinnamon and be done with it.  And the veggie protein soup I plan to make for the first time tomorrow night and just make extra for the rest of the week.  As for the chocolate pudding, I substituted blueberries for chestnuts (Tracy says it's okay) and nixed the coconut.  I've literally been in the kitchen for hours today and I'm tired!  There are a couple days this week I won't be doing the diet for dinner because I'm in a wedding on Saturday so I have a rehearsal dinner Thursday night and the wedding on Saturday, but I figure even I do it those other days I'll still (hopefully) see a difference!  

The food (minus that cheese drawer of course).

I should also maybe mention that I have never actually done a Tracy Anderson workout, so this should be interesting!  I'm still going to spin in the morning.  I know Tracy only wants you to do her Method, but I could use that little extra cardio in the morning I think.  I'll do the dance cardio and muscle work at night.

I'm really, really hoping this works.  I wasn't sure about the diet, but I kinda like the idea of everything being made ahead of time for me and I don't even have to think about it during the week.  I spend a lot of time thinking about, shopping for, and preparing food, so I think it'll be a nice change.  Plus, it'll help me not cheat.

Okay, I'm off to go measure myself and bed!

Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis

I've been sort of following Tracy Anderson since I saw her when Gwyneth was on Oprah.  I haven't tried any of the workouts yet, but I read her book.  I was afraid to start it because quite frankly, I like to eat and the meal plan was a little crazy.  Not only was it a small amount of food it was also not foods I'd normally buy.  I follow her on Facebook and Twitter though and still like to see what she's doing.  The other day I saw someone else's results on FB and I was so surprised to see how defined her arms were with only 3 lb. weights.  I use 10-15 lb. dumbbells, I thought 3 lbs. was a crazy idea!  The thing about Tracy that I really do like is that she seems to shrink people, it's like she just pulls a string and cinches you all in.  I'm not currently so small, but I used to be pretty tiny and I want that back.  So, Tracy's Metamorphosis is on QVC now and for $100 I can get 5 DVDs and a meal plan (that's hopefully more realistic than the bootcamp menu).  I kinda want to try it.  I've recently had a lightbulb switch back on and I've been really good about spinning in the morning and lifting with more cardio at night.  Could it be that I can stop all that and just do her DVDs and see results?  I'd really like to shrink my entire body and get defined muscles as well.  QVC has a 30 day money back guarantee, so I think I'll try it and see if it works and if not, I'll return it.  Has anybody tried it and loved it, or not?

Let's not jinx it but...

I've gotten every weekday morning since last Wednesday ridden my spin bike for 30 minutes or more and last night and tonight, I lifted weights and walked on the treadmill on an incline for 30 minutes.  I lost 3 lbs. last week, I'm hoping for 5 more this week with the double workouts.  Yay for having to be in a wedding in a little less than 6 weeks as motivation.  It seems weddings are the only thing I get motivated about.  Okay, I need to go to sleep now.

Forks Over Knives

I just went to see "Forks Over Knives" with my Momma.  I dragged her along in hopes that she might come away from it with a new outlook on the food she eats.  Let's hope it worked!  I thought it was a really informative movie, though slightly upsetting.  It did get me thinking though.  I think I'm going to take the summer to eat a more "whole foods, plant based diet" and see what happens.  Maybe I'll some weight and my skin will clear up, who knows!  I went vegetarian for about 4 months a few years ago, but it really didn't work me, I think the problem was I are a lot of faux meat rather than a lot whole foods.  This time I'm gonna try to just eat more veggies and grains.  Oh, and I'm going to stay out of Chick fil a for awhile.  I probably average once a week (though I've had moments of eating it twice a day), so cutting it out for awhile will probably do wonders for me.  And maybe if my mom sees me making a change, she'll try it too.  The fact that the two main doctors in the movie were in their 70s but looked so young or one of the women they featured got a gold medal in a triathlon at age like 47, while battling cancer (which later disappeared) or that the one doctor's son made a career out of triathlons for over 10 years and then at 34 yrs. of age, decided to become a fire fighter (and could climb up the fire pole using just his arms) should be proof enough that there might something to the idea.

Posture

I'm studying to get my PT certification (who knows if I'll ever use it, but I paid for it, so I want to get it) and I was just reading about posture.  And it occurred to me that I have a Lordosis deviation.  

Now, if you know me in real life, you probably know that I have Cerebral Palsy and this is most likely the cause for my deviation.  It means that I have a tight lower back and hip flexors and possibly weak abs.  Who knew all those doctors and physical therapists who told me I should stretch were right?!  I'm now 30 years old and just realizing, hey maybe I should stretch!  Maybe if I stretched I'd be in less pain on a regular basis, what a concept!  So, here I am making a conscious decision to stretch everyday.  When crossing your legs while sitting becomes slightly uncomfortable, it's time to make a change!

Bush excavation

We've been living in our house for almost 5 years now and there's been this awful bush in the front yard since we moved in.  It blocks most of the front of the house and I've always been concerned with strangers hiding behind it.  Yes, I know I'm nuts.

See, it's huge.  And really ugly.

It was a total of six different trees grown together, plus those awful tiny shrubs that are kinda sticky.  It took all day for my wonderful husband to dig them out.  One broken shovel and one lost (then found) wedding ring.

But look how much better it looks gone!  Plus, no more chance for scary strangers to jump out from behind it!  The only problem is now we have a dirt pit with a bunch of big rocks thrown in and I'm not sure what to do with it!  I kinda want to put my raised bed there, but we get a lot of foot traffic on our street (I think there's a bus stop nearby) so I'm kind of afraid someone will steal my veggies or just ruin them for the hell of it!  What do you think?