NEW BLOG!

Hey all! You have prob lost hope in me by now...

but just in case there are still some people with me on their blog roll or google reader I wanted to post about my NEW BLOG. It is a food blog with my best friend Katie. It is a blog dedicated to living a balanced and healthy life style, complete with workouts and recipes; trials and tribulations; excitement and goal meeting.

So come check it out!


Two Lives, One Lifestlye

"Operation Florida" Day 162.8 lbs.

Wow, what a week so far! I have dropped about 4 pounds, but it is defiantely mosty water weight. I have no restricted myself at all but have made lots of little changes and upped my exercise a bit. I think after this week of the "bloat" from the past few weekends (homecoming, my nephews birthday party, etc.) has come off, the weight should start to come off in a more steady fashion. I forgot how exciting it is to lose weight :) Love it!

The changes I have made have been small but have (clearly) made a big impact. For one thing, I have made most of my meals veggie based instead of meat or carb based. For example, last night I had roasted brussel sprouts with tofu and mushrooms. This was cool because I can eat a ton, feel very satisfied, and still stay within appropriate cals. I have really started to see this week how the kinds of food we choose, not necessarily the calories in them, can make a big difference. I am truly seeing for the first time that not every calorie is created equal!!

Boot camp was awesome today! We did 3 stations and cardio. The stations incorporated squats, dead lifts, crunches, and push ups. The cardio was both steady state and intervals. We did not stop moving for the entire hour and it was so hard but so amazing! Tomorrow I am trying my first spinning class at the new gym! I am super excited because there is nothing like a good spin session :)

Oikos Contest!

I just read about the Oikos contest on Jenna's post over at eat, live, run and I have decided to enter :) I love Oikos yogurt, and have frequently had it as an afternoon snack with some cranberry almond granola and a drizzle of honey. yum :) I even just became a fan on their facebook page!

So here is what I could desperately use a weekend away at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health:

I know I have mentioned it before on here (without going into much detail) but this past year has been one for the record books for me and my family. It started out normal in January. I decided I needed to lose some weight and started a diet and exercise plan that I could keep in place while starting my busy season at work. As some of you know, I used to be a tax accountant so the months of January - April were pure hell for me. Long days at work doing a job I absolutely loathed did not make for a happier me. I was stressed beyond belief. Then February hit, and economic tragedy struck. My husband lost his job as a supply chain and marketing manger for an online car parts company. Since supply chain is not a career that is in high demand in these trying times, we knew it would be a while before getting back on our feet. However, much to our delight, Stephen was able to find a job relativly quickly, but there was one catch, it was in New Jersey! We were excited for the new opportunity and soon found ourselves packing our belongings, signing a lease for an apartment in Hoboken, NJ and waiting patiently for my transfer to go through and for his start date to arrive. However, in early May, economic tragedy once again struck. After everything was moved to NJ and had been there about a month the branch of the tire company Stephen was supposed to work for shut down. This meant no jobs for either of us in NJ, a year lease signed for both an apartment AND a parking garage, and no where to live in CT anymore. To put it frankly, we were screwed. I tend to internalize my feelings of stress and anger, and I began to become more and more shut off from the world, especially my husband. The weeks went on, work was just as stressful (even after April 15th, weird) and I found myself slipping deeper and deeper into a depression. As a recovering bulimic I felt myself leaning back toward my old ways of binging and purging and gave into these feelings on several occasions. I internalized everything to the point where I was suffering from panic and anxiety attacks almost everyday. Then one day while at work in a small, windowless room with another tax accountant I suffered from a full on panic attack. I cannot tell you much about that day. All I remember is asking the person I was working with if he thought it was hot in the room. The next thing I knew I was in an ambulance on my way to a hospital. I had passed out and my heart rate was over 200 by the time the medical team came. This was by far the lowest point for me this past year. After a 2 week stress related leave I decided to leave my job. And as they say, the rest is history. While things have clearly gotten much better in the past 3 months or so (Stephen and I both found new jobs and a new apartment) I still feel myself internalizing so much of my stress, and avoiding binging and purging is still a daily struggle. I have recently started practicing yoga and cannot begin to explain how helpful it has been. To have the opportunity to visit the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health for a whole weekend would be a dream come true for me. I really feel that yoga and meditation will help me in my continued recovery from bulimia, and with my anxiety. If this past year has taught me anything, its that we all need to listen to our bodies and respond appropriately. Yoga will help teach me how to become centered and one with body so that I can actually listen to the messages it is sending me, both good and bad!



So there we go! The reasons I believe I should go to the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health! If I win I will clearly be taking my best friend, Katie :) She is a graduate student in CO studying chemical engineering, so she could definately use a weekend away too!

Operation Florida: Day 2- 165.2. And first day of BOOT CAMP!

Hey blog world :) So today is day 2 od "Operation Florida" and I weighed in at 165.2. I forgot how much my weight can fluctuate from day to day! At first I was really nervous because it was a 1.6 pound loss in just one day, but then I remembered it is probably just water weight. But it did feel good to know that I am headed in the right direction.

Today was also my first day of BOOT CAMP! I signed up for this exercise program that is two days a week in the morning a little while ago. It is at the gym I used to work at with one of my favorite trainers, Krystal! It was an hour of constant circuit training. After a brief warm up Krystal explained what we would do in each station.

Station 1: one foot on floor, one foot on step. Squat down for three and shoot your body weight up so you are standing on the leg that is on the step (not sure if i explained that correctly. I wish I had pictures!!!). Do 5 times then switch legs.

Station 2: crunches. crunches. crunches.

Station 3: Dead lifts with a barbell.

Station 4: power push ups

Station 5: Krystal had a resistance band wrapped around a pole. Acting like the resistance band was a "lawn mower starter" (hehe) and pull while twisting. This one really worked the core!

I think that was all the stations. After we went through the stations once, Krystal has us get on a cardio machine (I chose the stair master since I am so used to the treadmile. I forgot how hard this is!) and we sprinted for 30 second and jogged" for 1 min and 30 sec. We did these intervals for 6 minutes and then went back for more stations. We did the stations and cardio rotations for an entire hour. Wow. I consider myself to be in good shape, but this was HARD! I am always looking for ways to shake up my workout, and this definately did the trick :)

On the work front, I love love love my new job :) I am finding it so facsinating and really loving the people and everything I'm learning. There is SO much to learn about hedge funds and how they work, and I really look forward to diving right in! Its also nice to have my own desk again, especially since I try to eat every 2 hours or so. Not having your own space can make this difficult and awkward. I love having my own desk because I can put my lunch box underneath (filled to the brim with tuper wear!) and I can pull out my veggies, fruits, and lunch whenever I need to. Today I had...

Breakfast:
Oatmeal, almond butter, apple, and soy milk

Snack after boot camp (omg I was staving):
mango and strawberries

Lunch:
Salad with romaine, spinach, 2 oz salmon, 1/2 cup kidney beans, red onion, feta, and 1 Tbsp walnuts

Snack:
1 chopped cucumber, 1/2 sweet potatoe

Dinner:
1 cup whole wheat pasta with pesto and tofu
small spinach salad with red onion.

Have a great day all!!!

Operation Florida... Day 1 166.6

Hey bloggies. I have been trying to steer clear of the scale for a few weeks now. I stepped on it this morning and wasnt thrilled with what I saw. Oh well.

So I am going to Florida for xmas with my husbands family in 6 weeks. I am currently 10 lbs away from my lowest weight in recent memory and I decided to make it a birthday/christmas present to myself to lose this weight before our trip. Losing 10 lbs in 6 weeks means losing just over 1.5 lbs a week, which is totally doable. Since it is for such a short period of time I am going to weigh myself almost everyday I think. I know this is super un healthy, especially for me, but I think it will work for this particular situation.

So today was day 1 of "operation florida" and day 1's weight is 166.6. I know. pretty horrible. But I also have to consider the fact that this pat year has been super stressful and crazy. I am such a stress eater and cant believe I didnt gain 30 pounds this year! Instead I lost a lot, and have gained some back. But hey, thats life right?

EMERGENCY!

I have run out of oatmeal!!!! how did this HAPPEN?!?!?!?!?

I am taking a power yoga class in about 20 minutes, and cant believe I am going without oatmeal in my belly. BOO! I did munch on some cobani yogurt with strawberries and a teaspoon of honey. It was delish, clearly, but I feel a void without my oatmeal. Lets be honest, my fondness of oatmeal with almond butter, an apple or banana, and vanilla soy milk (ok, im drooling) has become a love a love affair.

Ok. I'm over it. Off to yoga :)

What a week!!!

Wow! It has been one whirl wind of a week here in the Peters house! I started my new job on Monday and I have to say I love love love it :) I was an accounting major in college (hence why I became a tax accountant right after graduating. ew.), but in my last two years at Bucknell I took a lot more finance than accounting and found it much more facsinating. This job is combining the best of both worlds. Investment accounting is really facinating. Seeing how money is moving between hedge funds and fund-to-fund accounts is incredible. I know I know, I am a major dork, but I really love it. This is my third job this year, so I am hoping that the third time is a charm!

I am also feeling a lot of emotions this week. Stephen and I have been through so much this year with the failing economy and in life in general. My anxiety was at such a high level, panic attacks were happening daily, and we had no idea what was coming next. I honestly had no idea how we would pay our next set of bills, or how our very new marriage would handle everything that was being thrown at us. Looking over this past year, I see how far we have come as a couple and how far I have come as a person. I actually had the courage to walk away from a job that was causing so much pain and heart ache. I have found a job that I think I will really love. My marriage is stronger than ever and I am confident that NO matter what happens in our life, we will be able to work through it. Stephen has a job that he really loves and is exceling at it. This week I have felt so thankful for our strength as a couple, and for my strength as a person. I feel stronger than I ever have and am so thankful for everything and everyone that has helped me through this incredibly difficult year :)

I hope everyone had a great week and is having a fantatic weekend!!!