Category Archives: my change for a ten

5 Things BenderFitness taught me about running

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friendsvvisitrunroserun

 

1. Pace yourself, and start slow. I used to fear running even though I did a 10K last year. It was such a proud moment for me but I had to stop and walk/run. I never fully embraced running like I am now. I want to keep going and see how far I can go. Run a marathon someday? Why not. It is all in the pace.
2. Listen to your breath and turn off the tunes. Ok this was a hard one for me and I resisted. I am a dancer and I love my music, It motivates me. Now I find I am motivated by running for the sake of running, not drowning out the sensations with music. There will be a time when I become a seasoned runner when I can listen to music as I run, but for now I run and listen to my breath.
3. Keep Moving, sounds so simple and so difficult, but honestly if you just keep moving you can do it.
4.Dress for the weather, and have on layers that can come off if you get hot. Here in the Bay Area it can feel cold with the wind but as you get moving you become warm.
5. Start with a small race. I am signing up for a 5K in a few months. I can already run over 3 miles and I will definitely be ready. Once I have a few under my belt I will graduate to a 10K and then maybe a half marathon.
I am really loving running now, and I am so grateful she taught me how to run the correct way. Now I feel like the sky’s the limit. I also discovered after I run I have this incredible zen like euphoria that relaxed my whole mind and body. It really is helping me handle the day to day stress.
Namaste’
Rose
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12 Bean Vegetarian Chili

Easy recipe for 12-bean vegetarian chili

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I love to make soups and vegetarian chili. They are so easy and tend to last a few days.

This recipe is so easy; I whipped it up in no time and it was delicious and healthy.

Ingredients
1 bag dry 12 bean soup (Use just the beans and not the seasoning)

1 whole onion

5 celery stalks

6 cloves of garlic

Dry Basil

2 cartons low sodium vegetable broth

Ground Pepper

4 cans fire roasted tomatoes

1 can corn rinsed and drained

2 bags chili seasoning from McCormick

You may need to soak the beans overnight — or do a quick soak (30 minutes) beforehand. Place the beans in cold water and boil on high for two minutes, then let them sit for one hour, rinse and you are ready to cook.

Saute onion and celery til clear and then add the garlic and saute for a few more minutes. Add the soaked and rinsed beans and the two cartons of vegetable broth. Season with pepper, basil and add tomatoes and corn. Add the two packets of chili spices and let cook on low for an hour and a half. When you are finished you can add some fat free sour cream or non fat greek yogurt.

It is delicious and truly a simple recipe.

Enjoy! Namaste’

MIND BODY SPIRIT

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I think to be fit in body one must be fit in mind and spirit. I am a firm believer in a mind/body/spirit connection.  It all begins in our thoughts, and  our thoughts can be transformed into actions. I am one who finds solace in nature, and creating art. Working out helps balance my happiness as well as my fitness, as does channeling my creative and philanthropic side. When I do cardio, I prefer to do so outdoors so I can benefit from what I call mobile meditation. I get lost, I am a wanderer, wondering always about what is to come and pushing the limits on my dreams. The sky is the limit and I am forever reaching in my sun salutations for the sun above. I find weight loss is not such a lofty goal when you finally make the connection.
Check out my facebook page to see some of the tree photos I snapped on my running path. https://www.facebook.com/MyChangeForATen
Friday night my workout was done at midnight, yes it was late but I preferred to do it after my ten hour day rather than before. Skipping is not an option for me. When I began this project I promised myself when I commit to something I will follow through. I say it, and it gets done. I also walked two miles yesterday but I admit I did not eat nearly enough. I will have to improve upon that.
Today is day seven of MelissaBender Fitness workouts, and day seven of being her fitness ambassador.http://www.benderfitness.com/2013/01/lower-body-fat-blaster.html
Yesterdays workout was awesome and I really worked up a sweat. It is amazing how everything else in life feels right on point and happiness quota rises as if on steroids when you get high off your own endorphins.
I am so grateful for this life I live and it never escapes me that so many people are struggling and my heart always goes out to them. That is one reason I do this project, to do a little to make a difference.  Yesterday I met a young girl who is obviously battling cancer, but her smile on her face could light up a starless sky. Inspiration comes in so many forms. Her radiance and positive attitude will stay with me as I continue on in my own journey of this elusive phase we call life, loving every second of feeling totally and utterly alive yet never taking it for granted.
May the sun bring you warmth and the stars light your path
Love and Light
Link

I announced yesterday that I am a fitness ambassador for MelissaBenderFitness and I begin my workouts on Monday the 5th of January.  I am doing her three month Bikini Competition Prep workouts that she used before she competed and placed in a bikini competition.  I have three goals I am working towards in the next three months. To finish the three month workout plan and to become strong enough to take trapeze classes, and to develop my home yoga practice supplemented with studio time. I will also be choosing a charity to assist as well.

I am also going to be following how she eats, yet gearing it for me and my own personal tastes and lifestyle. It is very similar to how I normally eat, and the way I ate to lose my first 45 lbs. 

Here is the link to her grocery list. My husband and I went shopping and bought food for weeks, which will help me be consistent and not have to run to the grocery store every day like I did when we lived in West Hollywood. The lifestyle if different here in San Francisco than it was in  LA so I must plan ahead to be successful.

I am truly excited for the beginning the workouts, and getting ready and strong enough to take Trapeze Classes as well as developing my yoga practice.  Beginning the new year on a right note.

Love and Light 

Namaste’

Rose

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Melissa Bender’s Grocery List

STRONGER THAN YESTERDAY

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As you know, I am a former dancer and a poet, and I have my best friend Melissa Bender to thank for suggesting I write poetry in 2005, as well as getting me dancing again when I thought I was getting too old and that ship had sailed. When I started this project to sponsor a charity with each ten pound loss, I just assumed I was speed walk and diet and eventually lose the weight and take dance classes again.

Instead I found myself with the help of a trainer Mike turned dear friend ( who I feel indebted to).  Mike gave me his support, time, and expertise and granted me the keys to fitness; which opened up a whole new world to me. My best friend Melissa continued to inspire not just me but the masses with her incredible workouts, and I used those for my home based exercise and yoga. Melissa was my biggest cheerleader and kept me going even though she was on the other side of the country.

I promised myself I would be completely authentic, and I was open about everything. I became fearless and ageless and I have so many fitness goals and items on my fitness bucket list. I may not be ready for all of my dreams yet, but I will be. When I shared with Melissa my desire to do a ambassador program for a fitness or yoga website she suggested I be her very first fitness ambassador. It was perfect timing, and a completely natural fit. 

I navigated a move from Los Angeles to San Francisco and I will be beginning anew as a Benderfitness ambassador with the iconic Golden Gate Bridge as my new backdrop. I will be sharing every detail of the next three months. I plan to do Melissa Bender Fitness three month Bikini prep workouts and yoga videos to build a solid home practice, cardio and I plan to follow her diet plan. She used the plan to prep for her bikini competition.

 I also just found out Melissa plans to come my way at the end of the three months and we are shooting a video and tackling one of the items off my fitness bucket list, Trapeze Classes. Now I have to become stronger than ever, since I am not near ready to take a class. I am so excited and thrilled to take on this challenge, and happy I have Melissa to train me and help me go into 2015 with a bang. I also plan to do raffle for charity on my site, and I am looking into non profits who do not get a lot of funds. Helping others as I help myself, with a little or a lot of help from my best friend.

melissabikini

Melissa who won trophies for her bikini competition

I am in good hands

 

http://www.benderfitness.com/

http://www.benderfitness.com/p/bikini-competition-workouts.html

 

https://www.facebook.com/MelissaBenderFitness

Namaste’

Love and Light

Rose

 

 

STARTING OVER

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The last few months have been challenging, navigating a new city and a new job.  Now that 2015 has arrived I feel ready to begin anew in my project. I will be announcing exciting news soon. I also plan on doing an event/raffle and raising money for a non profit who really needs funds. I am going to raffle off a prize that I feel people would love to win.  

For the beginning of 2015 I am going to focus on fitness and not be a slave to the scale, yet still helping charities and others along my journey. I have so many fitness goals and of course a fitness bucket list I wish to tackle. The idea of this project and blog is to help myself and help others in the process. I have been successful so far but that was just practice, it is on now. I am so ready to be the best version of myself.

Love and light to all

Namaste’

Rose

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

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Happy New Year to all.  I am really looking forward to accomplishing all of my goals in 2015, and I am extremely excited for what is to come. I feel to move forward it is always good to take a glance behind and know where you are coming from. I am a firm believer in reflecting on what was so you can learn from your successes and failures.

Here are a couple photos from my 2014, mostly photos to show my weight loss and fitness accomplishments.  I am grateful to all who helped shape my journey and I feel blessed to have encountered so many amazing souls. My trainer Mike pictured below with his dog Apollo, changed my path for this project. I assumed I would exercise by speed walking, take some dance classes and help make a difference by sponsoring a charity with each ten pounds I lost. Mike offered to train me and opened up my mind and introduced me to a fitness world beyond my dreams, and I am forever grateful to him for his time, expertise, and friendship. Now it is time for me to go forward on my own. A new direction but still on the same journey,  Onward and upward in 2015. 

Love and Light

Namaste’

Rose

colllage

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY

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I am humbled I get to see another birthday in this beautiful universe we call home, and honored to have so many loves in my life. I was born on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year with the least amount of light yet I have always felt enveloped my the saffron wonder above. My plan is just to spread the sunshine everywhere I go. Love and light to all.

I am so excited to announce what is to come in 2015, but for now a fun day with my husband James to celebrate my day I was born day.

mychangeforaten

MAKING CHANGES IN 2015

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Good Morning, love and light to all. Yesterday’s post was a raw emotional one for me, sharing my  new reality as I navigate myself here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I too, have bad days but those bad days for me are a sincere call for change. I do not like my job. The people are lovely and welcoming and it is a means to an end, but it is not for me. Too many long hours and six days has made it difficult for me to transition my healthy lifestyle I built in Los Angeles.

Ok, so I recognize a need for change and I have only been here a month. I will start with January. In the New Year I am going to state I need two days off a week. Then my plan is to either look for a job closer to home to work, or continue on there for a little while. Waiting tables is money for me, not a career.

The full plan is to free up my time a little so I can restart My Changeforaten, my fitness milestones, weight loss and charities, and  eventually get certified in fitness as well as yoga. The long term plan is to work in fitness and leave waiting tables for good. I started waiting tables when I went to college for Theater, and it stuck because of the fast cash and flexibility. With time, it has worn on me and the nights and weekends no longer fit with the new life I have built since I started this project in Los Angeles. My plan is to work in fitness, work on this project, and be able to have time for my poetry and artistic endeavors.

That is the plan. In the meantime I will survive this month, this transition and try to find some calm within the chaos. Much love and light to all.

Namaste’

Rose

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BAY AREA CHALLENGES

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It rained again today, and my mood  is mimicking this dismal weather of late. I was walking home from my commute and a car splashed me with rain water, as I carried my wet broken bag of groceries home, soaked if not by rain water but by my own falling tears. I did not feel like myself.  I admit I miss the eternal sun of Los Angeles, the smiling faces of the people of West Hollywood. Since this move from LA to The San Francisco Bay Area I have not been the same. I am being challenged in a way I have not been challenged since I began this project and blog. My husband James is working a high stress position and with that comes a lot of hours at the office, and I am also forced to work a lot more due to the insane cost of living here. I wait tables for extra money and the place I am working now is a lot more hours, and a lot more physical than I have done in quite some years. I still have not picked the poems for my poetry book, nor have I had my injured toe looked at. I have put myself last once again.

I am having a hard time balancing my blog, my fitness, and my new lifestyle that I have built for myself in the past year and a half. I feel my spirit is slipping away from me, and in it’s place is this shell of a person working for a pine colored piece of paper. My shoulder aches from the heavy cumbersome trays and my heart is following suit. I was on the train today reading Yoga Journal and all I wanted to do is sign up for Yoga Teacher Training. My goal is to eventually get to all of my fitness milestones and work in fitness. I felt incredibly melancholic that I was off to, excuse my slang, “sling hash” to the masses vs. going to work to do something I love.  Do not get be wrong, I am blessed to be able to earn the extra money we need to live here but I was worried my project would be sacrificed due to having to find a new routine with a lot more hours and strain on my body. I actually had a meltdown, full blown cry me a river of tears kind of meltdown.

There was a dog loose at the train station, running in the rain  away from his owner. I tried to help catch him, as did everyone but he kept running so fast no one could keep up. On my way home he was still running, and animal rescue was after him with a net. Poor pup was terrified and running with no where to go. I often feel like that when I work a ton of hours, like I am running an endless marathon to  empty destinations. I pray they catch him and he is now safe, dry and home with his family. Running away isn’t always the best option, for animal or human. I am searching myself for that balance of freedom and routine.

So here I type away, sharing some of my issues as I maneuver my mind and body within this new home of mine. A good friend of mine today gave me wonderful advice. Her name is LorenaLopez@Buzzforbrands. She told me it is ok to feel bad, just don’t live there. So here I am feeling bad for a moment or two, but I will pick myself off, stretch out the worn muscles and heal my heart and find my way back home.The only home I have known, the home of love, light and endless possibilities

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