3 Day Refresh...commence!

Man, I'm a mess lately...first of all it's been a little over three months since I even gave this page a thought. And it's for a lot of reasons. A lot of things that have taken place over the past few months that kind of shook my world for a little bit. And, when things shake my world, naturally I turn to chocolate and alcohol like a lot of folks do. After all, I'm human. A human that likes chocolate. Lots and lots and lots of chocolate.... I have to say though, I HAVE been good with my workouts, consistently working out 5/6 days out of the week, mainly doing Les Mills Combat which I love. I recently started incorporating Les Mills Pump into my schedule and I gotta say, there's something very powerful about lifting weights. Not necessarily becoming more powerful because of lifting (although that’s awesome too) but more so becoming more powerful in the mind. There’s something about lifting weights that makes you feel like you can conquer the world. And when you can do one more rep than the day before, it gives you a confidence that has a ripple effect throughout your life. Needless to say I love Les Mills Pump. I just need to be mindful of the back at all times and make sure I don’t overdo it. So far, so good.

What is NOT so good is the number I saw on the scale this morning. Sure, it’s a number and people say don’t pay attention to the number but I can’t help it. That number helps me stay accountable. And, even though I’ve been working out, clearly my nutrition is not on point since I gained 8 lbs since I last weighed myself. Blah. A mind-f for sure. (I AM hoping though some of that has to do with my weekend indulgence of drinking both Friday and Saturday nights and eating things I normally don’t eat….we shall see.) But… it’s also a good thing I decided (before I weighed myself) to do the 3 day refresh and try to get things under control. So I HAD to weigh myself and take measurements on Day 1 so I can see what it does when I check back in on Wed after it’s over. Steve and I are both doing it together. Which is actually helpful because I probably would’ve given up once Parker’s Cheez-Its came out as a snack this evening. He is preparing everything I need to eat when which is also awesome because I don’t have to think about it, just do it. If I actually had to read the book and figure out what I needed to eat when, it wouldn’t have happened. My ADD brain would’ve given up at the first sign of “prepping things.”






Sooooo. I will not post my weight here, sorry, just can’t do it… a number I’m most definitely not comfortable with… but…I will post my waist at 29” and my hips at 39” … so we’ll see how many inches I lost when I retake those measurements on Wednesday.

Now, about Day 1. This isn’t easy. After having four glasses of wine at Parker’s auction last night I woke up slightly hung over, this is on top of the few beers I had on Friday night of which I woke up hung over Saturday morning. Getting older is a bitch let me tell you. 37 is right around the corner and I’m beginning to realize I’m not 21 anymore. Then again I knew that at about 30. 7 years later, I’m still pretending I can hang. Trust me, I can’t.

So anyway, hung over Courtney has a tri-fecta of foods she eats to help ease the pain. First thing, egg and cheese bagel from Dunks. Extra cheese, extra egg. Yes, you read that right. Second thing, an eggplant parm sandwich with, yup, you guessed it, extra eggplant, extra parm. Haha And finally, a nice big bowl of fro-yo with chocolate sprinkles, chocolate carob chips and cookie dough bites. Yup. The tri-fecta. For many years this has worked like a charm. So you can imagine my body’s surprise when I decided to go the exact opposite direction and start a 3 day cleanse. All of which consisted today of 900 calories…shakes, fruits and veggies. My dinner was a bowl of cauliflower, broccoli and carrots in veggie broth with a vanilla protein shake. (Which, to be honest, the veggie soup was reallllly good as it had coconut oil in it with a little sea salt.) The only thing missing? Like 2 more servings of it. haha

So, talk about a shock to the system. My body is crying out terribly for those three foods that make everything so much better…. But, if I want to jumpstart things and change that number on the scale, I need to do this. So, here I am preparing for The Walking Dead (I totally feel like I should be in that today) but hey, at least I’m 33 1/3% done.

Anyway, I’ll keep y’all posted on the progress. Debating on whether to weigh myself tomorrow morning to see what, if any, progress has taken place. Knowing my penchant for instant gratification though that might not be good for me. If I see that I didn’t lose anything or see that I gained the first day (a normal reaction for some people) I might get disillusioned and head to Whole Foods for a Vegan Cookie.

We’ll see how it goes…wish me luck. And I promise to start posting things more regularly as I try and take this fitness thing to the next level and try to conquer some demons. Putting it out there in the world make it that much more real and hopefully y'all will hold me a bit more accountable. (Like when I'm going to reach for that 5th glass of wine...thanks) ha

Court

A lot has gone on these past six months....

Wow. 6 months have passed since my last blog post. That's kind of crazy but then again my life has been kind of crazy. I promise to get back to blogging more regularly and sharing my journey with y'all!
This time it's going to be more of a life journey than a weight loss/fitness journey. Of course that's a huge component of what I'm going to dedicate myself to but not entirely what I'm going to dedicate myself to. I vow to become a much better person, mom, wife, friend, co-worker...an overall better me. I feel like the past few months have really gotten me off track on who I am meant to be but I am dedicated to changing all of that and getting back on the straight and narrow and continuing down a path that I started to go down but somehow got sidetracked with everything.

Soooo much has gone on these past 6 months I'm not even sure where to begin. I had problems with my relationship, I have done some questionable things, I looked for a new job, got a new job, quit my job, hated my job, begged to come back to my job, came back to my job, lost weight, lost myself, gained some weight, lost myself some more, drank too much to deal with life, thought the grass was greener elsewhere, ate too much, ate too little, got drunk before a very important event, somehow pulled off a very important event.... I'm not even sure where to start. Sure, life is full of ups and downs but I need to find some type of balance and only I am responsible for creating that balance. So here's why I'm back blogging. To have you all to hold me accountable for creating the life I want to live. And it's so much more than the life I'm living now --- although it's getting better.

(Side note, 50 Shades of Grey preview just came on and I cannot wait to go see this movie...dying and counting down until the day it comes out in the theater!)

So bare with me, the next few blogs I'll fill you all in on what has happened the past 6 months... it's been a crazy ride. Then, on February 1st I'll weigh myself, take some measurements and share my fitness journey with everyone too. I just bought Les Mills Pump and excited to start lifting some weights and taking my body to the next level... I want to be a lean, mean dancing machine... more on that aspect of it later ;)

Until then, brace yourself for some highly entertaining stories, a snapshot of my life that past 6 months. Oh, you'll be entertained I'm sure.

xoxo,
Court

I used to be a drunken mess.

So, I used to be somewhat of a wino. I mean, recently. Like the past couple of years as I matured from PBR and .25 draft beer nights on LBI, I decided to take up something a little bit more "mature." So I started drinking pinot grigio. I love me some pinot grigio. Nothing like a chilled glass of wine with dinner. So I got used to having that pretty much on a weekly basis as I tried to decompress from the stress of work and home and everything that was going on in my life. And that was pretty much the extent of my fitness...



But let's throw it back a little to my 20's and hell, even last December. I'm a bad drinker. I'm one of those "hell, yeah it's party time let's have some drinks." And well, for me, some drinks turns into me getting pretty drunk and wanting to dance for 4 hours straight and well, acting like a moron. I've always drank to be more social to be honest. I'm not a very social, outgoing person. Just my nature. I've always been quiet and kind of shy and since I was little and even to this day people still probably think I'm a bitch. And while that's true on the home front most of the time, I'm totally not. If you actually take the time to know me and I actually let you in (oh, and if you're not a fake person I don't want to waste my time on) you have a loyal friend for life.

I've also drank to not think about what's going on in my life at the present time or what's happened to me in the past. I think for about 10 years from 21-31 I drank mainly to forget. And I'm not proud of those times as they were some tough ones for everyone in my life. I still graduated college, was successful in my career but holy hell the rest of my life was a mess, primarily on the weekends. It wasn't until recently when I began to take my health seriously after my back surgery. Well I guess not too seriously because I was still so bitter about the fact that I even had to have back surgery that I kind of indulged until December, but let's say 2014. I finally realized I had to stop using the past as justification for my actions and take back control of my life...to not let the past continue to haunt my thoughts and move forward. I tried in years of therapy and that didn't work. I think sometimes you just have to be ready to do it. No one can make you do it, you have to be ready to do it for you.

Now, side note here, Steve gave up drinking awhile ago. Like over 3 years ago. Sure, he'll have a beer every now and again, although the last time I think he drank was last May during an uncomfortable situation ha. But other than that, nothing. It's nothing like the start of our relationship where we drank bottles of wine together every weekend or went to beef and beers. Not sure what that is? You're probably not from PA! (This Jersey girl had no clue either!)



So he's had to put up with my drunk self on occasion, ok, occasionS and deal with me being a fool, driving my drunk ass home and help me to piece together the night before. Really, there must have been some nights he's looked at me and thought, what the hell did I do? I would've.

But, luckily I've kind of stopped drinking recently, I mean like really drinking. I have had no desire to drink as I have in the past. There's too much on the line now, not to mention the last thing I want is a 5 day hangover, 5 days of missing workouts! But I'm going to try the whole moderation thing and I think it's been working out for me. Last Saturday, we had friends from CT visit and I had some Sangria. Funny thing is, I felt so crappy the next day. 2 glasses and I felt horrible. I was convinced there was gluten in it. When in doubt, blame gluten. But I think it's because I ate so clean for a week straight I shocked my body and didn't know how to process that Sangria. BUT, I was still able to kick some ass with Les Mills on Sunday so it was nothing like how it used to be, eating a bagel sandwich from Dunks. My parents and Steve used to have to do the trifecta the day after I drank: Dunks egg & cheese sandwich, eggplant sub and ice cream/chocolate. How gross.

So, I may have to try some more low-carb, less sugar drinks. Need to find what works for me. And have 1 or 2. MODERATION. I have no desire now to ever get how I used to get now that I've embarked on this healthy journey and don't want anything to jeopardize that. Plus, who really needs all of those calories? I think of my Saturday weigh-ins, having a 5 day hangover, feeling GOOD every day as I have been and I think, is it worth it? No thanks, I'd rather workout then curl up on the couch and catch up on my shows and wake up FRESH!



I'm only talking about drinking because the 4th is upon us and I know for many that means burgers and brews. And hey, I'm all for that. If you can do that in moderation, more power to you. But for me, it's kind of an all or nothing situation. Will I have a glass of something this weekend? Probably, at a bbq on Saturday. But it will be nothing like the last 4th of July when I had probably a bottle of wine all myself and then followed that up with some beer. No thank you.

So I guess the moral of the story is... if there's something about yourself you're not proud of or you want to change, you can do it. I'm 36 years old and I'm still figuring out my limits, my boundaries, who I want to be as a person and that journey will never end. As long as you keep doing things to move yourself forward, or #travelforward as we like to say at work, then that's all you can do. And good things will come out of that... They are for me and I know they will for you too....



Until next time...

xoxo,
Court