Day After Dancing

My new lifestyle has taken over my life.

Myself and another girl have taken the reigns of a dance community in London, Ontario and between the two of us we have organized dances and instructional series of classes from now until the end of December. I get to be the demonstration partner for the instructor that we're using often, so we meet, do our own lesson, then practice the two lessons, do the two lessons, film the recap of the two lessons and then dance for the rest of the evening.

I didn't even dance every song! Rarely do I dance every song--I need to manage my perspiration.

Actual social dancing started around 10:10pm and finished an hour later. In there, I danced two songs using East Coast Swing which is a little bit faster feeling because you are triple-stepping so much and stepping back for a rock step, then stepping forward into a triple, then another triple, then rock stepping. This would make more sense if you learned to dance. You should look up "West Coast Swing" dancing in your area. Trust me, it's fun!

In an hour, I probably had about 5-7 dances since I was doing a lot of socializing and promoting.

By the time I was done, I was ravenous. Dinner was a restaurant chicken salad at 5:30pm and after that, there was no time for more eating and I prefer to eat light before dancing.

Once I got home, although I had premade pancakes waiting in the fridge, I knew that would be bad news to go to bed on a stomach full of pancakes, so I had 250mL of Greek Yogurt and a couple of triscuits and a hot chocolate. Yes, I bought a canister of hot chocolate the other day *sigh*.

This morning, as I woke from being dead to the world, I was grateful to myself for making a stack of whole wheat/blueberry pancakes and refrigerating them. I ate 3 with No Sugar Added syrup (I prefer the milder sweetness of NSA syrup by E.D. Smith).

I hadn't given myself enough time to get into ketosis and figure out how it would feel to do all of that with the very restrictive diet that is required in order to achieve and stay in ketosis. I also know that I would need to make a serious effort to get my stamina up and strengthening my back so I don't feel so completely spent the next day. The Michigan Classic at the end of May is looming.

I might have to put stamina and back conditioning ahead of fat loss.
What I might try next is to get into ketosis for May 4th when we have our next dance and see how I feel the day after.

On the Keto Fence (again)

When things start to feel out of control, or I start to feel overwhelmingly anxious about the damage I've done to myself with the eating last summer/fall, or when I view myself dancing on video which I'm doing a lot more of lately in order to improve, I start panicking and plan to get into ketosis so I can lose weight as fast as possible with the tried and true methods of my past.

Then I start to anticipate that feeling of isolation that comes with being on a ketogenic diet (constantly having to turn things down, explain yourself etc) and it too makes me anxious. I go through the day talking myself out of it, rationalizing that if I just ate low-carb and did cardio for an hour every day, I could probably affect a weight loss; even though not as great as it may be with a ketogenic diet.

Then I realize that my life is totally different this year, in that I am committed to dancing nearly every weekend this summer and an evening of dancing leaves me so exhausted and ravenous, I don't know how I would manage the energy demand. I won't know until I try of course.

When I see myself on video, I bounce back to my original thought that I seriously need to buckle down and get into ketosis because it saddens me to see what I've done to myself.

I feel like a tennis ball.

Greek yogurt & my go-to digestive cleansing product

First off, I've been hot chocolate-free for two days now. Jonesing! Still staying strong even though it is my comfort drink.

Secondly, I wore my armband for quite a long time yesterday (22 hours and 50 minutes) and I woke up this morning with my armband being somewhat embedded into my tricep (I'm exaggerating a bit) and leaving a spot on my arm itchy and irritated. So I am leaving it off until that goes away (probably another day).

Let me exclaim how delicious greek yogurt is! So creamy and chilled! There will be no need to get ice cream now that I've discovered greek-effing-yogurt! Here's how I've had it so far:

• with Splenda & coconut flavoring or banana flavoring (bought at Bulk Barn) + ground flaxseed to give it that "coconut/banana cream pie" texture
• with Splenda & cocoa (this was an experiment--I might give it another try with the 2% Liberte yogurt...the 0% President's Choice yogurt had too much of a tangy aftertaste to enjoy the chocolate, although maybe I need to mix a dash of vanilla in to cut the tanginess)
• as an additive to mashed sweet potatoes. don't bother doing this, it dulls the flavor of the sweet potatoes

There's another issue I have that seems to affect both the number on the scale and how my clothes fit at any given time. This is a somewhat embarrassing/personal issue to talk about, but I think it's worth talking about so that I can tell you how I'm handling it when I need to.

I'm fairly certain I have some degree of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) because not only am I not regular, but it's very easily affected by how many carbs I'm having, what types of carbs I'm having, whether I'm stressed, whether I've been less active etc. My sister, on the other hand has gone with a gluten-free lifestyle (that's for you Ember ;)  ) and has a completely opposite constitution.

On Monday & Tuesday of next week I will be visiting her place and bringing along some of my own foods, but when it comes down to birthday cake or baking, I know I will try it, love it and then pay for it for days by being immediately "Bunged Up" (favorite terminology used within our family for ages for this condition lol). She tells me I should eat Magnesium Citrate tablets and be careful how much I take for it might make me want to stay close to a washroom at all times. I bought it *hoping* that was the case and it had little to no effect on that.

Anyhow, I know that when I'm bunged up my digestion "isn't working well", I don't even bother to weigh myself and tend to choose clothes that are looser and more stretchy. I've tried self-administered colonic massaging (rubbing my tummy counter clockwise) and have found that it was helpful in stimulating some digestion a little bit.

When I notice that things are starting to need attention and I'm done with waiting for something to happen, I take 2 of these babies:

I HIGHLY recommend them as they are much easier to tolerate than taking 2 Extra-Strength Ex-lax tablets which I save for the critical-stage times.

However, if you plan to try this product, take one before bed with lots of water, and then lots of water as soon as you get up. Do it on a weekend so you know how your body will handle it. My mom took one and found her digestive system too "squelchy" throughout the day, whereas for me, I don't get that at all.

I'm in Canada, so I buy this in the herbal/vitamin aisle of the natural food section of Loblaws or Real Canadian Superstore. I don't take them every day, so a bottle can last me quite a while.

Down the Dance Rabbit Hole & Back Up Again

Thank you so much Ember for lighting a fire under me to put up another post : )  I guess I kinda thought no one was reading.

Another month has gone by and I used my BodyMediaFit armband consistently and logged my food consistently, and still no real change on the scale or in the fit of my clothes.

I have my first ever dance weekender coming up on May 30th and I want more confidence in myself at that time than I've had the last 3 months.

So it's time to return to the Ketogenic or Low-Carb plans that have worked for me in the past. This time, I referenced a blog that I came across which puts a fresh mindset on the whole process:
http://josepharcita.blogspot.ca/2011/03/guide-to-ketosis.html

My President's Choice Sugar-free Dark Hot Chocolate addiction habit needs to go. It's far too easy to mix up a couple of tablespoons and sit down with that lovely hot chocolate flavor making everything feel alright. I don't even want to go through the list of ingredients because the undissolved chocolate sludge at the bottom of every mug is enough to tell me I probably shouldn't be drinking such copious amounts of it.

The temporary consideration of taking up running has passed after meeting with a personal trainer in her 70's (she's an athlete, don't laugh!) and discussing my knee concerns. She started me on a ball workout program which left me completely sore (as it should) and I've had a number of things going on affecting me getting to session #2.

Mostly stress and disappointment with life and disappointed that I think we all get brought up to believe that you are pretty much going to have a husband and children and a house and it's a matter of finding him and arranging all that. For the late bloomers like me, it's a huge disappointment that you reach age 40-whatever and feel left behind.

Anyways.

It doesn't help that I'm in "love" with my car mechanic who is in his 30's and has a girlfriend. Fortunately I have a car that is aging and *perhaps* he likes me a little bit (from afar) and takes care of me, going well above and beyond every time I have a car concern.

I digress again.

So the last month has been a mad blur of dance-related activities. Here's what I accomplished with my co-pilot on the project:

• built a website  (westcoastswinglondon.ca)
• established a Facebook page, group and Youtube channel for us
• negotiated and scheduled two 6-class courses for Beginner Lessons and Musicality
• designed/ordered business cards for our group
• negotiated and scheduled several other workshops & social dances for the remainder of the year
• established relationships with the West Coast Swing communities in driving distance and started to share their events so they could share ours
• the list goes on....

I am looking forward to lots of dancing coming up and whatever I do in the gym will need to be towards being a better dancer in some way or another because it is definitely a passion and the kind of thing you can always improve on (like golf!).

Thank you for reading and getting my head back in the game.