healthy lifestyles

Wardrobe Malfunction

Yesterday, was a normal day at work. I was in a Halloween-y outfit: black skinny pants, black top, orange sweater. Everything was good with the world. And then. It happened. I SPLIT MY PANTS!!! From the crotch, all the way down to the middle of my thighs. BOTH THIGHS!!!! DISASTER!!!!!!!!!!! I pulled my sweater down and took quick but short steps (lest I flash someone some inner thigh) to my desk, put on my knee-length jacket, stuck my laptop in my bag, and got the hell out of there to work the rest of the afternoon from home (with un-split pants).

As funny/disastrous as this was, it has served as a wake up call. Truth is, I have put on some weight. Actually, that's a lie. In the almost 10-years that N and I have been married, I've put on 30 lbs.
30 lbs!!!!!!!! And moved up many dress sizes. And to be honest, I am not comfortable. I love fashion, and while I've learned to camouflage, fashion is not as cute or fun when you're not the weight that you're supposed to be. So, this unpleasant pant-splitting incident has gotten me motivated: motivated to eat right and workout, and set a real goal, and put it out there in the world for you to see. So here's my goal: I want to be 130 lbs by our 10-year anniversary in July. That's a 25 lb loss. Totally achievable.

A few years ago, I saw a dietician when I was in India, and she put me on this great eating plan where I lost 10 lbs. But then I stopped being vigilant, and they creeped back on. So its time to go back on this plan. There's really nothing radical about the plan, its mainly portion control. I will tell you more about it as the weeks progress, but needless to say, I will be checking in with you every Friday to let you know how I'm doing, starting with this Friday.

You will probably see a lot of tweets relating to my workout activities, so if you ever want to join me, just let me know!! Oh and one more thing. I'm not allowing myself to buy any more clothes. Each 5 lb loss gets me a new outfit until I reach my goal, and that's pretty much all the clothes shopping I'm allowing myself.

So, for the sake of my love of fashion, this 130 lb goal weight is an absolute necessity!

Let's do this!!!!


Things I LURVE: my yoga tote

Earlier this week, I mentioned my 15-minutes a day yoga goal, which I'm averaging about 3 times a week. Not terrible, but far from goal. Besides the daily yoga, I also have a goal of making it to a yoga class at least once a week. Allison and I are big fans of Saturday morning Hot Yoga at Inner Bliss, despite the fact that I'm really lacking in flexibility and can't get into half the poses! Nonetheless, I really enjoy the studio and the sweatiness, and so I keep going.

Normally, I just roll my mat up under my arm and take it in, but then I'm also carrying my wallet, and my towel (v. sweaty) and keys, and phone, and trying not to drop anything. With this renewed commitment to yoga for 2013, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy a bag for my mat. I looked a few bags on etsy and amazon, and as you can imagine, there are many options at many price points. I also decided to look into the "gold standard" for yoga apparel and accessories, and naturally, lululemon emerged the clear winner in my hunt for a yoga tote.




At $48, its not exactly inexpensive, but hello?!?!! Look at it!!! Chevron with a bright blue--- how adorable is it?! I'm motivated to go to class just so I can carry it!!

Beyond the obvious aesthetic appeal, the bag is big enough to include an extra long, extra thick mat (which is what I have) AND yoga mat towel which is an absolute necessity (see prior sweaty comments). There is an exterior pocket and a nice-sized interior pocket (room for small wallet/credit cards and phone), and its waterproof!

A perfect yoga accessory. Now if I could only get into a handstand....

Walking For Health

So since the beginning of this month, my work has been trying to encourage its employees to pursue a healthier lifestyle, including working out more. As part of this initiative, they have given us pedometers and we've set up teams for some healthy competition between groups. An "active" person takes 10,000 steps a day, and to be honest, I never gave my activity level much thought until I started wearing the pedometer. I consider myself generally fit; I spin 2-3 times a week and do yoga another 1-2 times a week, and I walk the dogs, so I figured the 10,000 steps would be no problem at all.

Turns out, its harder than it looks!!! I usually walk the dogs for 20-30 minutes in the morning, spend the next 9-ish hours at my desk, with breaks to walk to conference rooms and the printer and the bathroom. All this only amounts to 5,000 or so steps a day!!! To get 10,000 steps, I need to walk for at least an hour and fifteen minutes a day, AND take the long route to the furthest printer at work!!! Needless to say, the pups are going to get lots of walks while I've got this pedometer on!!

Have you ever measured the amount of steps you walk per day? What do you average in your everyday life?