Monthly Archives: February 2017

MAKE IT COUNT MONDAY

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“Don’t give up! It’s not over. The universe is balanced. Every set-back bears with it the seeds of a come-back.”
― Steve Maraboli

Good Day to all, it is  Weigh In Monday and I am off for two days. I love to use my days off to catch up on my writing and my plans. I am always redesigning my life, even when set backs happen. I continue to forge forward always, and I never give up. I love this quote above, it truly speaks to me.

I think I am going to call Weigh in Day “MAKE IT COUNT MONDAY.” It has a special kind of hopeful ring to it.

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This week the scale did not budge, but I expected that. I stayed at 159 lbs. I know the scale can sometimes be that fickle friend, one day it shows you love and the next day it stands you up. There you are, standing on the scale with all the hopes of the hard work you put in the previous week, and then nothing. Not one bit of movement, no matter how many times you step on the darn contraption. 

Weighing in should not cause that much drama, do not view the scale as a frenemy; someone you love to hate. Instead embrace the process, weight loss is just like life; you will have your ups and downs. Each week is a brand new chance to reinvent your approach. This week I did not feel well, I felt a bladder infection coming on and I drank all my extra points in cranberry juice. I knew the extra calories of all that juice could alter my outcome on the scale, but my body needed healing. I recently discovered cranberry pills, highly recommended by friends and I am now on the mend. Remember, this is all for your health and wellness. I am completely fine with the scale staying the same this week.

I am embracing the process of the journey. I am going to work harder on my fitness this week, and keep my food clean and keep my points on point. Monday is my splurge day, but I will not go overboard. Splurging within my point range.I will make an effort to get at least 6-8 fruits and vegetables a day. Maybe I should begin making smoothies with veggies again. I will stay motivated and put in the work, it is all about the work.

My workout schedule for this week:

The 3 W’s. Four days a week on my work days after work, I will do my workouts by #benderfitness. I am tailoring them to the fact I have a shoulder injury, and I will also be doing exercises for my shoulder to help myself heal. I will complete two walks a day on my work days. This is all easy to remember, if I work, I workout and walk. The 3 W’s, walk, workout on work days.  http://www.benderfitness.com

Three days a week I will run, I will work up to 3 miles each day. I will also do home yoga and flexibility training 3 days a week. Again, 3 days off equals 3 miles. No way I can forget this plan. Here is my yoga, flexibility and running plans.

http://www.benderfitness.com/2015/05/5k-training-for-new-runners.html

http://www.benderfitness.com/2016/10/daily-yoga-challenge-10-sun-salutations.html

http://www.benderfitness.com/category/flexibility-training

I will work on sleeping better, and not stressing even though life can sometimes throw a pie in your face, and trust me I have dodged a lot of pies lately. Willpower, a good attitude and a smile works wonders; and perhaps just a taste of the pie. 

I am off for now. Namaste’ Love and Light.

Happy Monday,

Make it Count

Rose

FLEXIBILITY GOALS 2017

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To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.

Anna Pavlova

I love this quote, as a Sagittarius I have my arrow on my prize always. I have many prizes in the form of my goals. I have so many goals, and I believe in never giving up. Some goals may have to wait because of money constraints, and some goals are put on a hold because let’s face it, one can only do so much at one time. I do not consider this procrastination, but a pause. I focus on what I can do, and return to my other important goals as soon as life and time gives me a little more freedom to do so. I keep adding new goals, I guess you can say I am driven my making goals. I aim for my goals.cirque11

I photographed this statue of a dancer in this beautiful pose and added the quote I felt best represented the image. It struck a cord with me when I saw it, it inspired me. I was a dancer when I was younger, and one of my motivations/goals when I began this blog was to return to my dancers shape and flexibility. Age was not a factor with this or any of my goals. To do this that takes consistency and hard work. I have come a long way but there is still a lot of work for me do to get to my goals. I want to attend ballet and yoga classes in my area, because face time in a studio really makes me come alive. In the meantime, there is no reason why I cannot do this on my own. I can prepare for the time when I am in a place to pay for such classes. My plan is to add to my home workouts a rigorous home yoga and flexibility training. I know my body, I know what to do, and I have my benderfitness videos to help guide me along,http://www.benderfitness.com

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It reminded me of the time I slacked off on flossing my teeth. ( I know, gross huh)  I realized I needed to floss again twice a day to get my teeth in good shape so my next cleaning would not be painful. Once that happened I vowed to never not floss again. If you have ever stopped flossing and went for a cleaning you know this is a painful experience. Same holds true for any goal, you can prepare on your own, take baby steps. You want to take an acting class but cannot afford it so for now you can find a library and read. Prepare, prepare for your aim. Use your time wisely, spend your time learning.

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So instead of complaining that I cannot afford the classes I covet, I will prepare my body by doing the work myself at home, and on nicer days I will take my mat to the park. I will begin this starting Monday next week. I have been meaning to write out my schedule, but that too has been on pause. I am on top of that now.

Rome wasn’t built-in a day, but I am sure the Romans worked really hard day in and day out to get to where they wanted to be, one brick at a time, one day at a time. 

I am the architect of all of my goals, the designer, the builder, the person with the vision. I will do so, one brick at a time. 

Namaste’

Love and Light

Rose

 

 

MAKING FOOD MY FRIEND

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Your body is a temple not a trash can. At the same time, you have to learn to live with food, not without it. It is fine to occasionally eat foods that are not considered healthy. For me, I now follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I eat real, clean food, and the other 20% I allocate a little wiggle room for occasional treats and goodies. I find this plan is sustainable for life and living. I can maintain this forever, and not feel deprived. This is how I am moving forward in my weight loss journey, and my life.

Rose Bruno Bailey

Food, it is a necessity of life, the staple of living. We need fuel to live. Food not only feeds the body but it can nurture the soul. Food can be healing, and it can be addictive. For some food can cause anxiety and fear, how much is too much?  One cannot decide to just quit food and go cold turkey. You have to learn to live with food, to achieve balance, to make food your friend.

For the longest time food was my enemy. When I was age 13 I began dancing, and an adult dance teacher told me I must lose 30 lbs between freshman and sophomore year of high school. That began my journey of making food my enemy. I had eating disorders and spent most of my early days trying to avoid food. You can read about it here. http://mychangeforaten.com/eating-disorder-past/

That post was in 2013. This is now 2017, and I am here to say the old habits came back after that moment. I decided I did not need Weight Watchers after some time, and went at it on my own. I lost my weight, but the old feelings of being obsessive about food came back, in the form of what I was eating instead of not eating. I went from my starving days of yesteryear, to being obsessive over good vs bad foods. Carbs, gluten, sugar, just a little sent me over the edge of guilt and obsession. I think I was bordering on a new eating disorder called Orthorexia. Melissa Bender from Melissa Bender Fitness was the person to suggest this was how I was behaving. She knows my background with food.

melissabenderfitness

or·tho·rex·i·a
ˌ
noun
  1. an obsession with eating foods that one considers healthy.
    1. a medical condition in which the sufferer systematically avoids specific foods in the belief that they are harmful.
      noun: orthorexia nervosa; plural noun: orthorexia nervosas

     

I am happy to say here I am in February 2014. I feel like I am back in control of my eating disorders, and I have done so with Weight Watchers Online. Melissa Bender told me she is so happy I am making food my friend, and I am too. I can safely say I am still eating healthy, but I now have a little wiggle room. I no longer obsess with what I am eating, I track it daily on the Weight Watchers App and I am done with it. I eat clean, but I allow some treats here and there. I work the plan each week, and if I feel something is not working, I try something new the next week. I have broken my year long plateau and lost 9 lbs since January 14th, 2017. That brings my weight loss goal closer, I am now 24 lbs from 135 lbs. I will always do this, I will maintain my weight by the points system after I get to goal. I will achieve lifetime status with Weight Watchers, and have a healthy relationship with food.

I am grateful for the food that nurtures me and fuels my body to do the things it loves to do. I will not obsess over bad and good food. I eat clean and healthy yet I enjoy life, and with life comes the occasional treat or celebration. Food is no longer my enemy, food has become my friend. Every Monday, after weigh in I enjoy a treat with my coffee. I do that, and I am still losing weight. I really look forward to the scale, and the treat afterwards.

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I will leave you with this, a quote from the weight loss guru himself.  We miss Richard Simmons. If you would like to hear the number one podcast in the country, Missing Richard Simmons, here is the link. I was interviewed on the last day of Slimmons. I hope Richard is well. https://www.facebook.com/MissingRichardSimmons/

We miss you Richard Simmons.

I’ve always practiced this: Love yourself. Move your body. Watch your portions.

Richard Simmons

 I love myself, I am watching my portions and moving my body Richard. Thank you.

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WEIGHT LOSS MILESTONE

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16387009_1393904893988306_2621029889834396704_nMy weigh in day is on Monday. I am working so hard, and I really get excited for weighing in. This week I finally made it into the 150’s, a milestone I have been chasing for over a year. I finally broke my long time plateau with Weight Watchers Online and I lost 9 lbs in a little over a month. That is 10% of my body weight.

I lost my initial weight between the summer of 2013 and 2016 and than the scale just stopped moving. I continued to work hard on my fitness and I continued to eat healthy but nothing could get the numbers to go down. I even kept off every pound through an ongoing crisis. I never gave up nor will I ever give up. One day I will write about the crisis I am in, but for now I keep all of that private.

I can officially say I am 24 lbs from my goal weight of 135 lbs.

Cue Happy Happy face.
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LET GO, LET GOD

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Happy Sunday to all.

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Sunday is the last day of my work week, I am off Mondays & Tuesdays. Sunday is the day I reflect in gratitude and plan my goals for the week. I am always looking for inspiration, and I believe there is inspiration everywhere. I try not to focus on worries and the hardships of life. If I succumb to that, I will be unhappy and lose sight of my goals and dreams. Life is beautiful, but it definitely is not easy. Nothing of worth is easy.

I met someone this week named Guy who told me when you find yourself feeling caught up in your troubles, to Let Go and Let God. I found those words to be so poetic and powerful; to let it go, and give it to God to take care of. It doesn’t matter if you do not believe in God or if you are not a spiritual being, you can let it go, and leave it to the universe. To release your worries and let go is the best way to move forward in my opinion. if you hold onto stress and pain, it only hinders your health and well being. I believe health goes beyond just the body. I am trying to be healthy and happy in mind, body, heart and soul. 

So today, I will Let Go, and Let God. I will focus on the beauty of nature. I will be silent and meditate as I do my morning yoga, reflecting on my gratitude of life. I have so many goals as I move forward in 2017, but today I will just be. I will be grateful for my life and loved ones, for the food I eat, and the nature my eyes get to see as I do my runs and walks.

Today, I will Let Go, and Let God

Namaste’

Rose

 

 

 

 

EASY ITALIAN CHICKEN

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Hello to all and Happy Saturday.

I am busy, and sometimes it leaves little time to cook. I do love to cook, when I have time to be creative in the kitchen I can concoct some delicious recipes. On other days I try to cook something that takes little time and preparation. Let’s face it, we are busy but we still wish to eat healthy and delicious home cooked food. I tend to cook a lot of soups and chicken dishes, foods that help me stay within my smart points on Weight Watchers.

One of my go to recipes is a one pot chicken dish, Italian style. Have you heard of Dump Cakes? It is when you just throw all the ingredients in a pan and bake and voila you have cake. This is my version but with chicken.  It is absolutely delicious and low smart points if you follow Weight Watchers. I usually serve it with mashed cauliflower. One pot meals make eating healthy and staying within calorie and point range seamless. I buy frozen chicken because I am on a budget, but the recipe can be used with fresh chicken as well. I hardly call it a recipe, it is so simple to cook. Healthy home cooking on a budget doesn’t have to be complicated.

My portion of one piece of chicken, mashed cauliflower, sauce and one small red potato was 10 points.

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Manga 

You will need:

I bag of frozen chicken

Two tablespoons olive oil

Vegetables of your choice cut into pieces. I used Portobello mushrooms, zucchini, red and white onions, yellow squash, red potatoes, green and red peppers, and about 8 cloves of garlic. 

Two cans crushed tomatoes (low sodium)

Half can of water

salt, pepper, oregano

In large roaster, add two tablespoons of olive oil. Than add chicken, vegetables and potatoes and garlic. Finally, add two cans of crushed tomatoes, garlic, and season with just a little bit of salt, pepper and oregano. 

Mix all ingredients and cover, baking for over an hour at 375. It depends on your oven, mine took a while. I always just check the chicken. The package of frozen chicken says to bake it for 30 minutes, but that is not correct for my oven. My chicken took over an hour.

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This is a simple recipe, and it makes the most delicious sauce. It is all done in the oven. The Mashed Cauliflower is so simple as well. 

Boil Cauliflower until soft. I just added two tablespoons of lite butter and used a potato masher. I spooned in some of the tomato sauce for flavor and mixed with pepper, oregano and a dash of sea salt.

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Happy Saturday. Food that is simple leaves more time to get active. Have a wonderful day.

Rose

5 reasons I went back to Weight Watchers

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The journey is never over, each time you get close to your destination life decides it’s time for you to take a different route.

Rose Bruno Bailey

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My weight loss journey, my life. Ups and downs for sure, but in my heart I definitely feel I experience more ups than downs. In the beginning of this weight loss blog I began with Weight Watchers, and after some time I decided to go at it on my own. I lost about 60 lbs and then hit one major snag, a plateau that lasted about a year. When I moved up to San Francisco my weight actually went up about ten pounds. I lost that when I moved back to Los Angeles, then I got stuck at 168 lbs. I even did a six month clean eating challenge, and did not lose a pound.

On January 14th, I joined Weight Watchers Online. I decided this was it, I needed to do this again, and I planned to journey with Weight Watchers all the way to my goal weight of 135 lbs. Since that day and moment, I am loving this new route of my journey and I lost 7 lbs. I broke that plateau, and I truly am loving the ride. 

Here are the 5 reasons I went back to Weight Watchers Online.

Weight Watchers works in real life, it has been proven. You get a set of daily points, and some extras weekly points. I broke my plateau since I joined on January 14th, 2017 and I lost 7 lbs. You get live support if you attend meetings, and virtual support online if you do not. You can choose to have a coach for a little extra, and for some I am sure that is a life line. Weight Watchers works for weight loss and maintenance. This is not a fad diet, this is forever.

Weight Watchers Online is only 19.95 a month. That is truly doable. For someone on a budget I know I can make that payment. I get the app and all of the wonderful features that comes with it. I track my food, my progress and weight on the app. I get recipes and ideas and share inspiration with others on their Weight Watchers journey. Weight Watchers Connect is like Instagram and Facebook, but for all of us on Weight Watchers. So far I track everything I eat and drink, and I would never do that without the app. I love it.

Weight Watchers helped me with my food issues. I admit it, I had eating disorders. I always looked as food as being bad or good. I would get anxiety if I ate something considered bad. I was getting obsessive and it wasn’t pretty. Now I eat whole grains again, and I am losing weight. Weight Watchers keeps my portions in control for me, teaches me to love food again. I couldn’t be happier.

Weight Watchers may be a format, but I can work the plan the way I choose to, and each week I can change it up if I feel something is not working. On Mondays after weigh in, I have coffee cake with my coffee. I would never have done that before. I actually love weigh in Mondays!!

Weight Watchers is for everybody. Anyone can rock this plan, and everyone can be successful at it. I have seen people on Connect who have lost over 100 lbs with Weight Watchers, people of all ages. It can be done, and I am going to get to my goal of 135 lbs with Weight Watchers. In about ten pounds, I plan to start going to meetings, and when I get to my goal weight I can be a lifetime member. Lifetime members get to attend for free. Talk about the perfect weight loss maintenance plan. 

I am all in with Weight Watchers. All the way, journeying to my goal and beyond.

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WEIGH IN MONDAY

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To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

Emily Dickinson

Happy Monday, good morning world. It has been a while since I posted here, I have been updating my social media pages, but I have neglected to write more blog posts. That is changing today. Life takes over, worries and fears crushed my motivation to write anything new. We have had our ups and downs, disappointments and distractions. I decided to put my seat belt on and ride the wild roller coaster of life with the enthusiasm of a child at a theme park, instead of getting run over. I love life too much to let the problems of living take me down. 

I joined Weight Watchers Online on January 14th of 2017. I felt I needed something new and fresh to get me to that elusive goal weight of 135 lbs. Since joining, I have lost 7 lbs. I now weigh 161 lbs, I am getting so close to the 150’s. I am really loving using the app for Weight Watchers Online, and counting points. I still eat the way I have always done since beginning my weight loss journey, but with wiggle room. Today is weigh in Monday, and I have to admit I get so excited to weigh in. After, I allow a little treat with my coffee, of course I portion control it and count it in. Today I ate a portion of Russian Coffee Cake with my delicious Dunkin Donuts coffee, with zero guilt. I officially weigh the lowest I have ever been since I began this weight loss blog.

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In addition to committing to posting here, I am writing out a new cardio and work out schedule. It will be geared to my rotator cuff injury. That has slowed me down, but I am going to begin doing the exercises I can do, along with running, walking, and some rotator cuff injury exercises. Of course I am working out with Melissa Bender Fitness. 

I am also looking for ways to update this blog, I added pages at the menu or the top of the blog, and I plan on adding more. Down the line when things improve I am going to get someone to really help me jazz this blog up. I added before and now photos, photos from my volunteering and my experience with Richard Simmons and Slimmons, and all the friends I met through that part of my journey. I am going to add pages of how I eat and my workouts, and races as well. I am also going to do a collaboration on a brand new book, and market my poetry Camellia in Snow. I am excited to be featured more than once in Asana Journal, and I plan to write and submit more, volunteer more etc. Lots of creative and exciting endeavors to focus my energies on.

Plus the work of life, do it all and survive. That is the challenge.

Since January I have lost 7 lbs. That is a beginning of a brand new year I wish to see more of. No more worries and stress. I will work hard and work off the worries with endorphins through exercise, of course listening to a motivational playlist.

The scale is finally moving again, hurrah.

Weight loss, worries, we got this. Are you with me?

Ready, set, Go!!