I Said I'd Never Share My Weight, But I'm Too Proud Not To

     I’VE DONE IT! I have just completed one of the longest-coming goals I have ever had--and it was a hard one, too. Later, I think I’ll post about my exercise story, journey, whatever in full (especially the part about what did it for me in the end), but for now, here’s the rundown:

    After never being ‘that fit girl’ my entire life, and Freshman year, in which I unavoidably gained weight with so little space to exercise and no kitchen, I was bit with ‘the Zumba bug’ my Sophomore year. I had a fantastic instructor (and I hope to take another of her classes, because she is the best Zumba instructor I’ve had), and over the Christmas break that year, I Zumba’d a ton. I’m talking even 2-3 hours. Finally, after being reasonably committed to regular Zumba by myself, and starting up the Tracy Anderson Method again with more earnest, I was feeling pretty good.
    Then along came Mom (^.^). My family was out here for a friend's wedding, and I was feeling at least decently proud of my fitness ‘progress’...but my mom said she thought I looked...less good. Well that was not any fun to hear, so I ramped it up. Over Spring and Summer terms, I not only did Tracy everyday, but I made up(using her moves for the most part), a very lengthy abs routine to do, too. It was nearly 400 moves. It’s amazing how quickly that stops hurting after daily performance, though.
    Junior year came, and I really made exercise a priority--I did have a weight goal in mind. In the past, I would always just plateau at the same weight, but when I had been a little more exercise-focused senior year in high school, I was about 10-12 pounds lighter than that, so I made an even better goal. With that in mind, I would come home in the two hours I had between classes and do Tracy’s Mat Workout DVD. I was very devoted.
    Winter semester, my schedule wouldn’t quite allow for that, and I was in all film classes, so I really had to focus more. I continued to exercise, but not like the previous semester. That DVD is really great. Truly. I got strong on it. However, I was noticing it was harder to see results; Tracy herself wants you to switch it up every 10 days so your muscles don’t get too familiar with your moves. I began doing her Metamorphosis DVD online, which was only 30 (well, for the mat work only) minutes, as opposed to an hour.  It was pretty killer, I was surprised.
    When I got to the third (of 9) routine, I told Mom that’s what I needed for my birthday, because, what if they stop being posted, or are taken down. So, that’s what I got for my birthday, when I was on level (routine) 4, I believe--already on the second DVD. When I was home for Kiawah, I worked very, very hard. I did Meta, and some things on the side, and cardio. Overall, about 2 hours a day for about 10 days. It was great--especially the amount I could sweat in the humid South!
    I have always had a bit of a problem with portion control. Heck, this time last year, my eyes were definitely twice as large as my stomach. I noticed that this was probably preventing me from seeing all the results I would like to, and, again, at Kiawah, I tried to really watch myself. I did well while there, and tried to stay on track when I got back. I did have a bit of a bump in my resolve a month or two later (I love my food, and I love to eat a lot of it in giant spoonfuls), but I did get back on track. I still have to consciously think about it, but I am SO much better! I am much happier not eating myself sick, to the point where anything else seems out of the question. Then there’s room for dessert ^.^ .
    Back to exercise. I was decently okay after vacation, but then hit a snag in about September after all the each member of my family had come out separately to see me (weirdly enough). However, I was maintaining really well, and that sort of made it harder. I was no longer needing to hide anything because I was uncomfortable with the way I looked, and I fluctuated between about 2-4 pounds away from my goal weight.
    About a month ago, I got tired of my skipping exercise. Turns out I’m a bit of a lazy person, and if my body hasn’t been warmed up from exercise, I don’t want to move, and that makes me feel icky. I was doing a routine at the time that I wasn’t loving, and I had lost arm strength, so much time on all fours was very difficult. I knew that I wanted to get back into full habit again, though. SIDE NOTE: I also give myself $1 per workout (a full Tracy one), but I can’t spend it until I reach $100, at which time I can buy whatever things I desire, as long as they aren’t food. I should have earned my $100 months ago.
    With Mom and Liv coming in town in two weeks to shop for wedding dresses, I did the next routine 5 days a week for two weeks, knocking it out. It was hard, because often I want or need to do other stuff ‘til late, and I’ve exercise around midnight a lot. I hate that. But I love the way I look after, so I did it anyway.
    Meeting that goal, I felt amazing, and was told, genuinely, multiple times that I was tiny. Crazy enough, my legs, which have been around the same proportion to me my entire life, have shrunk up this last month, and are tiny, and can now totally ROCK leggings. It’s brilliant, and boggling. I love the way I feel and look, so I’m hoping to finish this last routine ‘on time’.
    So here’s when I came to realize that this long-term goal, this difficult journey, has been met. Yesterday, though I knew I’d have a more accurate scale at the Greener’s, I weighed myself. It said 115 (which I definitely didn’t want to announce until I’d maintained for a minimum of two days). My scale isn’t the best, so I didn’t want to get too excited. I ate several sliced of gingerbread, had full meals, didn’t even exercise til about midnight last night. So, at the Greener’s, I couldn’t wait ‘til morning to see. I got 115.4. Wow. Then I went to the bathroom, and couldn’t (sorry I’m messed up) resist trying again. 114.6. Wower. After exercising last night, I was even lighter.
    My final read in this morning: 113.8. Holy crow. it’s incredible what hard work and persistence can do for you. I started 2 years ago between 127-130.

Here's the most recent, full-body before I could find (2011):
 

 And today ^.^ Boom Baby. Complete with ab 'dimples', visible ribs, and a toned tummy:

Miss Representation Review

    I was really looking forward to seeing this film (see previous blog post: “Miss Representation”). I;m going to be really honest. I did not really like the director’s way of storytelling. The film was mostly interview-based, but it frequently had cuts to montage scenes of near or mild pornographic images. For a film so adamantly against such things, why did I see more of those images in one film than I have accidentally run across on the internet in the last 5 years? I know, they may have been going for the ‘shock factor’, but after the opening scene, I felt there was no need for it. They were saying it was so bad, yet showing their viewers those same images! Not cool. Overall, nothing was confusing, however, I think it may have helped to have interviews with real women who had struggled with issues, rather than to just interview every famous woman.
    I care about this subject, and the director did present many important points. However, I do not feel I was made to care more as the film went on--the amount I cared about the subject was a result of my own opinions, and not hers. I think that, in an attempt to make people care more, the director used the inappropriate images because if the audience was against such things, then they would surely have to realize that they were of her same mindset, too. I feel that she did not need to to so hard to get people to believe that what she said was important, it just is--fact. Alternatively, I think that some of the most effective scene, for me, were ones where they showed video featuring real women in the public eye (like Katie Couric), and the appropriate, yet not overly stiff, way they present themselves. It was a nice way to really see what they were saying we should strive to be.
    I felt as if the director was trying to manipulate a bit. For example, they focused a LOT on the small number of women in power-position jobs. They kept saying who and it was that women didn’t have more of those rolls. I agree that any discriminate is wrong, however, I feel they COMPLETELY ignored a VERY important point. A lot of women have families on the side, and do not want to have such a huge job, OR they quite the workforce to be mothers. If both those kinds of women are removed from the mix, then yes, there are less even wanting power positions--but that messes with her statistics. She completely ignored that some women just want a small job, or just want to be a full-time mother. This is also interesting for her to leave out as she said she was making this film for her own young daughter.
    I think the film brought up some very important and fair points, however, as the movie progressed, I did feel as if the director did not present every aspect of what she was talking about, and instead provided a some-what narrow view.
    Some important points worth talking about were realized in this film, but I unfortunately must admit that I feel they missed out on talking about all women (with varying desires for jobs), and further rejecting the images (which they presented all too often) that they said they were so horrified at.

"Queen of Versailles" Review

So, a few days ago, I watched the documentary “Queen of Versailles”. As a super short summary, it’s about a wealthy time-share owning family where there is 30 years between the husband and wife, tackiness in taste abounds, and their lives go downhill as the market crashes.
    I think that the director did a good job of telling a story that took place over several years. This was especially effective in his interviews with a couple of the children. As they aged, they became more aware of how imperfect their ‘perfect ‘lives were. Also, there was some nice exposition, allowing me to understand how life and had been, and was, for them at the start of the film. That was contrasted nicely with later interviews while they were struggling, and talking about how difficult this change was.
    I did not find anything particularly confusing or ineffective as far as the storytelling went--although their lifestyle definitely made me wonder how anyone could become like that, at times.
    Interestingly enough, at the start of the film, I found the wife unbearably tacky. However, after getting her backstory, one that had some less-than positive moments that were outside of her control, I had a change of mind. Although she still made me wonder how she could have fallen into being so tasteless, I felt like I understood her initial choices (such as marrying her husband) a lot more, and I felt sympathy for her. It helped that they showed pictures of her from when she was normal, before she had her life turned all around--it showed that she really was just a typical, maybe even pretty level-headed, person once upon a time.
    While watching, I never felt manipulated. Although I think the filmmaker had no desire to make their subjects look bad, they seemed to just show things as they were (which at times did not make them look great). This made the film feel like a pretty unbiased look into the wealthiest’s lives. I think they tried to be fair when representing their subjects, and did not try to skew the events that happened.