Camel Pose

Benefits of Camel Pose:

• Reduces fat on thighs
• Opens up the hips, stretching deep hip flexors
• Stretches and strengthens the shoulders and back
• Expands the abdominal region, improving digestion and elimination
• Improves posture
• Opens the chest, improving respiration
• Loosens up the vertebrae
• Relieves lower back pain
• Helps to heal and balance the chakras
• Strengthens thighs and arms
• Improves flexibility, especially in the spine
• Stimulates endocrine glands
• Releases tension in the ovaries
• Stretches the ankles, thighs, groin, abdomen, chest, and throat
• Cures constipation
• Tones organs of the abdomen, pelvis, and neck
• Complements overall health and well-being

Besides losing weight I did have a goal of once again be able to do this camel pose.  Years ago I finally got to a point of being able to do the pose.  Well it has been years since I've attempted it and I have given myself a goal of doing it again.  I'm getting close, but it's hard.  I'm not quite sure why I wanted to do it again- maybe because of the chest opening it offers.  When I read the benefits it only made me want to do it even more.

I keep getting down about losing my last 10 pounds, but I think I'm getting over it.  It has taken me a few years to get to this place I'm at  AND all of the sudden I'm not happy about it- REALLY?  Since when I'm I entitled to feel bad not being able to lose 10 pounds?  I've had cancer- I know people who have died of cancer and I'm concerned about 10 pounds?  What a jerk I can be.  Life is getting more back to normal, but I get stuck between feeling guilty for feeling normal and worried that if I do start to feel normal I will soon be brought back down to my knees by something like cancer.  What am I suppose to be?  Let it go?  But what if it comes back?  Worry about it and miss some quality time?  I'm VERY sick of it plain and simple.  Yeah I'm an over thinker- that's why I tend to need stuff to keep my mind occupied.  Trying to lose this weight has keep my mind busy.  Who knows- but I'm sure I'm not the only person with this mind issue...lol.

So I do look back at how far I've come to be Danielle

Aug 2011

 

Our most recent date

July 2013

 

I love these guys so much and they are so important to me- I will continue to fight for health

 till God sends for me and maybe I should just leave it at that?

 

Really fitting in getting fit

We are all busy and trying to find time to exercise can be very difficult.  We have our jobs, family, chores, and then by the time we take care of all of that we are tired!

Rob and I are working on getting our house built, so we more things to take up our time.  Rob's schedule is always crazy so trying to get together for something is also just plain hard.  He's so busy with work and I'm busy with the usual stuff.  When we decided to be our own general contractor we knew it was going to be time consuming and we would have to be somewhat organized- OK a lot organized!

That's when I decided to do what I do when preparing for a project- I started nesting.  I began with Rob's office.  Well it's really "our" office.  I'm still working on it as there is always papers, papers and more papers.

So in order to take it up a notch with my workouts and still manage to see Rob, I decided to make sure I could do some of my workouts at home and for that to happen I needed room and convenience.  So here's what I came up with-

I cleared the middle of the office so there was some room to workout

 

I cleaned up my desk area making it workout friendly

Then I made sure stuff was always READY and AVAILABLE!

 My mat

My DVDs and weights

 

I can easily play my DVDs on my laptop

 

I have my cute mason cup

 

 

My crown...lol.  I have my ToneItUp binders

 

 

I tried really hard to merge our stuff and I hope Rob is as happy with it as I am. 

 

It's nice I can fit in my fitness and be around my family not at the gym or in the basement.

 

So now I can roll out my mat get my DVD going or just do weights.

Oh and time with Maggie as well

 

 

Finally a dress and a pair of shoes!

Well I hadn't posted a dress picture in a while.  Still trying to get to a goal weight!  I guess maybe I'll go back to my Fridays of dresses....and weigh-in.  

I have an outdoor party to go to and I really like this dress, but I'm not so sure about jumping around and dancing in it.  We'll see. 

I got some money for my birthday and I found this cute dress and wedges at Boscov's!

It's not often I will dare to wear something strapless, but I'm thinking I can do it.  I will have to do a couple of tricks, but it should be OK.  :)

The wedges were on sale~ they had some other cute ones as well.

Blue and Green eyes!  :)

Maggie thinks I'm nutz

I'm also thinking about a new hairstyle- Oh boy- To Be Continued...

How I know I'm getting back to ME

I find it pretty funny all the comments I get concerning my license.

The other day I was in TJ Maxx and I wrote a check and the guy asked for my license.  I watched as the guy goes over to another woman - I assumed to question how to accept a check.  Then I see they call over another woman and now the 3 of them are looking at me.  I couldn't imagine what the problem was.  So then the guy comes over with the 2 other woman following and says, "I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to accept this check".  I asked why.  That's when one of the woman asked if I have any other form of picture id, because my license doesn't really look like me.  OK.

When I had cancer and lost my hair I constantly got comments like - wow you really changed your hair, gee you really went short, I really like your hair cut (which was actually a wig).....and so on.  It's funny how many people young, old, male or female would make comments.  I was saddled with a license of me with long blondish hair while going bald, wearing wigs, and growing out my hair.

Since that time my license had to be renewed and well that took place a little bit after I had completed all my treatment and my hair was well back past my ears.

Now I'm with a license I thought looked pretty good, but as I look at myself today I do notice it might - not like me.  Now I have people say to me- I like your dark or I love your hair long and I someone even said something awkward like you look really different- It's so funny.

As I look at my license I can see that I did lose a good amount of weight- I was up to 143 after treatment- I've lost about 23 pounds.  It seemed like I would never get to this point and I still get disappointed when I don't lose fast enough- but I've come a long way and sometimes I just have to celebrate that and take a break from trying to lose weight.  I don't know what my goal weight will be- it's tough for me now.  I have 1 real breast and 1 fake (my foob) so the more I lose the real one will get smaller, but my foob will remain the same.  Also when I lose weight at some point it will show in my collar bone area above my chest and any weight loss shown there will also increase visibility of the sunken in area I have in my chest where they took my entire breast.  I don't know what's in store for me and my body shape and size at this point- I'm just so very happy to be able to be physical and feel somewhat strong and in control of my body.  I miss my breast for sure, but I love my body every single inch of it.  Creating a new life with a new body has been a journey that continues to inspire me so that I can continue on..

But it's not all about the weight loss is it?

In the last 3 years I've gone through some major life changes and one of them being my appearance.  It has been extremely hard at times because even I didn't recognize myself, but thankful I was just hoping to survive so that stuff seemed so small compared to just plain wanting survive.  There were definitely times I just wanted to me again, but again I choose to concentrate on surviving not my looks.  Eventually surviving meant being healthy and after taking a treatment that actually takes your health way down; I had to start trying to build my health back up.  This meant eating better and exercising!  Thanks to my dad who had me up and walking right after my surgeries, my mom getting me into Pilates and drinking smoothies right along with me and my husband going to gym with me- it started- getting healthy.  And what comes from leading a healthier life?.....a longer life as well as a person who looks healthy and happy....and that the me I want to be!

This is me healthy happy!

 I have no idea what's in store for me and cancer, but no matter what I know I have the best chances being healthy and keeping my body strong.

My recent achievements in getting back to me is also due to the support of my girlfriends who agreed to also participate in getting healthier.  The support I get from my friends is a big help to me.  Not all friends are right there with you, but the ones who are are true gems.  To get healthy with my girlfriends who haven't had the sickness I've had is a special gift, because it also makes me feel more normal like them.  Yeah I know I'm normal, but I'm also different or so I thought.  As we have tried to help each other and I hear them complain about body parts or weight I realize we are all just girls with all the same issues.

We are all beautiful and healthy yet we are unhappy with our self at times and that's all normal.  We just have to concentrate on our beautiful health.  And we all want to be around a long time for our kids and their kids!

Oh and back to the license story- I happened to still have my old license- I know that is illegal, but I had it.  Then they agreed that it could be me.....lol.

This is how I know I'm finally getting back to ME!  

Workout Fashion

Well I have to say one of the parts of working out that I like is the clothes.  It just makes me feel better about working out if I think I look half way decent.  I when I was 148 which for a 4'11 girl is hefty I mostly just went with black workout pants and a big t-shirt and that wasn't exactly my favorite outfit.  I lived in that outfit as I would wear it to work (very lucky for that) and then to the gym which I was doing at least 3x a week.

In the Weight Watchers magazine I seen this article

Now that I am down in weight it sure is nice to wear other things

 I love MizzFit and her blog- she had pinned this outfit and I LOVE IT!

 She is so cute - I'm really digging pink and black as well as the coral I've been seeing around!

 I'm NOT  a fan of Kim K.- but I do enjoy seeing what it is exactly she wears to the gym as she is a girl with some substance which most of us are- THANK GOD!

 Not all of us are like this young lady- although I like her little get-up.

 There's those coral sneaks  :)
   
   And here she is preggo and going to workout-

 I LOVE these sneaks!!  I love the black with a pop of color!

Now I AM a fan of the Princess!  I love her bright sneaks as well!

I

 So based on what I've been seeing around I decided on a couple new items for my workout collection- I did have to get rid of a few tops and bottoms as they weren't doing it for me not that I've lost a little more.
  I really thought this outfit was adorable:

OK- the sneaks I'm not digging, but everything else looked sharp to me.
 I'm on tight budget lately with the house building and all.....So what's really nice about this outfit (excluding the sneaks) is it cost me under $60.

I must say I love this jacket a lot- I hope it holds up- I do wash all my blacks in black detergent and I try not to over dry.

 Ok the tank (pink and black) comes with a bra inside- but there is no way for me to wear that alone as my insert wouldn't work and it's pretty thin for coverage.  So I did purchase the tank to wear over it and I like it.

 I do love the cut out on this workout tank- it's cute.  I purchased a size small, but I could probably wear an extra small - but I don't think they carry and that.

Here is the top alone- not a very good picture- sorry.  Gee you can only see my foob side- if you were to see the other side you would see a headlight...lol. One good thing about a foob- headlight is never on- I love that.

I do like these capris a lot as well.  I think I could also wear a size smaller in these.  I did wear them to a Pilates mat class and they were fine.  I don't know if I was doing the reformer if they would work as well as reformer calls for fit full coverage clothes.  I've been known to pull up my pants too much.  lol

These pants are really comfortable- they are not supportive as in tight.

 And here is the back of the top.  I like this top because most of mine are racer back and this one isn't.

This is also nice because if I don't want to wear the white tank over this I could wear a racer back sports bra instead and that will allow me to wear my insert.

 It looks cute for a different look

So all in all I really like this inexpensive outfit. It runs on the big side- but it's very comfortable and light weight.  Like I said I did wear it to class and I really didn't do any fidgets!
I actually ran out after my class and not only did I not feel like a slob I thought I looked pretty good.
I think the jacket really makes a difference- it's fitted with some stretch and it's ruched around the wrists.

And where did I get this?
Kmart :)
You know me and the big K.

Well - it's been a while.

Right before Christmas I got the worst flu ever!!!  I also gave it to Lucas and we spent a week together in our house- sick!

I was doing so good organizing my Christmas stuff then I got sick and everything sort of fell apart.  I was so sad to not get my Christmas cards out in time and hadn't decorated the tree.  Thanks to Rob a lot of stuff got done I was just unable to do!  And Thank God for my mama who fed us.

So it's Friday after the Holiday and I'm back on the scale and ready to resume my fitness stuff after a long break.  The only good thing about the flu was that I didn't gain weight!

I'm trying to keep my fluids up as I still don't feel 100%.  I love my new LifeFactory bottle!

I'm gathering a couple of recipes together for a party I have tomorrow night

White Russian

Kraft Artichoke Dip

I'm debating on wearing this to the party?

The New Year is almost here and I'm working on setting some goals for myself!! 

Yahoo

Life moving on.....late posting

These legs better get their job done on Turkey day!!!

 

I better get rid of at least a couple of pounds - it's only fair if I expect these legs to carry me around.

Well I'm a little late getting this out- but it's been a little busy.  I'm trying really hard to get more organized so that Christmas won't be too stressful and more enjoyable!

We are also starting to get moving with our piece of land.

This is where our house will go

Even Maggie got up to the land...

It's very exciting and a little scary all at the same time! 

I absolutely love our family pictures we had taken by Annie Sullivan Photography.

It was fun and Annie made it a sucess- she even got Lucas to laugh!

To see a picture where the 3 of us are laughing is really priceless- I cried

So my weight was up- but since I've started back up with my FitnessPal I know why- I LOVE to eat.  I eat a lot of stuff all day long.  I love to eat.....so I need to pull it back a bit.

As time gets closer for the Turkey Trot I'm getting more nervous.  I just can't imagine running along people- I do a lot of self talk pushing myself, so I hope I can handle it.  I'm not a runner runner so I wonder how I will do.....I'm just plain scared.  So glad my friend Amy will be there too.

Weigh In

 

Well my weight is on the way down- I hope to do well again this week by:

Using my FitnessPal

Working hard at Pilates

Running more.....outside in the cold.

Drinking more water and eating more in season fruit and veggies by being better organized.

I recently went over to my brother's home for Halloween and the kids were all running around and my brother was super busy- carving pumpkins, painting faces and every thing else- and I noticed bowls of veggie on the table for snacking it's so smart to just cut up veggies when you are busy so the kids can snack up on good stuff before dinner- which this night was pizza.  And us adults can also enjoy the veggies!!!

 and here are a couple shots from the party we went to

I love going with this clown.........I could go anywhere with him and feel so much better and have SO much fun.  I'm so lucky.  Blessed!

aw my girl Jen- she's great fun!

I got a few compliments on my nails- which I did love almost as much as my hair! 

  

I used Essie- leading lady

and

Maybelline- Color Show- Rose Bling

and my ring finger is ColorShow- stick on nail art