During class on Monday as our last group of the day lead us through their workout, I noticed that we still had quite a bit of time before class was actually set to end.  The thought entered into my mind that maybe I should just try to wing-it instead of spending the next two nights freaking out and over-analyzing my routine.

I had been practicing in my car of what I would say along with my music choices, surely I would be able to instruct a group of 25 people on a whim!

As my teacher went over how Wednesday would be a full day, I blurted out loudly, “I think I might be able to do mine today.  I’m not prepared but I have the CD in my car if you guys would bare with me!”

My teacher lit up at the opportunity to balance time better for the last people to present and I took a dash out to my car for my C2C CD.

I wasn’t in a jeweled outfit and I couldn’t get that awesome headset microphone to work, but I still feel like I rocked the room the best I could!

I had my class utilizing  their exercise balls as I had them doing wall-sits, arm lifts, and doing jumping jacks on the ball to this song:

It was incredible to look around the room as I was bouncing around on my ball, counting out our reps, to see everyone smiling hugely back at me.  I felt so proud of myself that I was getting through my routine while people were actually enjoying my workout!  After the routine was over and it came time for feedback, there were so many people talking all at once that I could barely make out a single word!   I did hear: “You looked so cute!”, “That was so much fun!”, and “You did so awesome!” or something along those lines.

The class came to an end and I spent the next ten minutes glowing as I chatted with my classmates before yoga began.  I was so happy with the support that I got from all the people in my Pilates class that I spent the rest of the week feeling very proud of my body.  Instead of thinking to myself, “I’ve only lost sixteen pounds”, I have been dropping the word “only” and praising myself for the success I *have* had.

With my replenishment of faith, Wednesday morning when it came time for tennis and the heat increased, I finally, for my first time, dropped my protective morning-fog pants layer to reveal my short and cute fuchsia pink tennis skirt I bought MONTHS ago.

…And not even twenty seconds later I hear called out from the other tennis court, “April took off her pants!”, all excitedly from this 19-year-old tender morsel of a youthful college guy.  It cracked me up and the two women I was playing with gave the dude some smart replies as I mumbled something about how I may end up being shy.  But inside, I was glowing.  Haha!  This kid knows I’m ten years older than him too since we had previously been talking about him being born in 1993, yes, NINETY THREE.   Anyway, his attention to my legs definitely boosted my self-esteem and when it came time for our class to meet in a group, I got complimented by nearly every woman in my class on how cute my skirt was.

I’ve been feeling down on myself lately because of all the drugs I’ve been having to take for my endless ear infection (3 1/2 weeks now) and have been told how prednisone can make it difficult to drop the pounds.  A week like this was exactly what I needed to keep the confidence going in myself.

I feel the support system I have is amazing and a great deal of why I keep working diligently towards my goals.  It is very often that I have full intention of driving to 7-11 for a Coke slurpee but I stop myself because I know I want to make  positive progress.   I am so grateful for everyone I have in my life that helps support me on this adventure to better health.

Thank you to all our blog fans, my classmates, my friends, my family, my wonderful sister Alyssa, and that hottie 19-year-old in my tennis class for making me feel proud of myself!  You all make it easy to keep going!  :)

I know the blog community is a great source of support for so many people on this adventure with me!  What other kind of support do you get in your life for health? Do you have a favorite person out there that you can look to for extra encouragement?

I’ll be back on Monday while Alyssa gets some solar support in Cabo San Lucas with another blog!

I hope you all have a glorious weekend!

In thinking about what I want 28 to be like, I want to claim my health. I’m fortunate that my blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels are fantastic, but this year I want to shed my excess weight and reveal the slimmer, slender Lyssa. I’m not going to put a number on how much I want to lose, because that sets me up for disappointment if I don’t make it, but I need to get closer. I’m in the process of doing some fact-finding that I’ll share more about later, but it might be a little clue as to why I’ve struggled so much the past few months. (For the last time… No, I’m not pregnant. Ha!)

Here are some health related things I want to do this year:

• Run a 5k with April. We’ve been discussing doing a Double Chin Diary Sister Run, and I’m trying to figure out which 5k will be our first to hit up. Any suggestions?
• Keep drinking water. Did y’all know I’ve been OFF DIET COKE for over a month now??!?!?! Unbelievable. The only thing I miss is the convenience of grabbing a cold coke when I want something different than water. I feel like my skin has cleared up a lot! I’ve been guzzling unsweetened iced tea like crazy!
• Focus on strength training in addition to cardio. Too often when I’m trying to lose weight (aka my whole life) I just focus on sweaty, messy cardio. However, this spring’s bootcamp session reminded me that great results come from mixing it up. Plus, nothing makes you feel more badass than pushing a sled filled with weights across a park.
• Work on changing the negative self talk to a voice of compassion. This means calling out my friends and family when they diss themselves. Life is too short to hate yourself… so I want to make sure I live every day grateful for this body I have, as imperfect as it may be. It is perfect because it is mine, and it works, which is a gift some people don’t have.

That’s all I got for now. Here’s some exciting news: The Double Chin Diary has been listed in Diet To Go’s top 100 inspiring weight loss blogs!!! There are days when I’m too tired, too lazy, or too meh to write, but for the most part, I love coming back here and checking in. Writing has always been my sanctuary, and to know that there are real live people out there reading my rambling warms my heart. When I reach my goal, know that you have played a part in it. THANK YOU.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Hi, my name is Julie. Alyssa is one of my best friends from grad school (congrats again on the MA, baby!) and she was kind enough to suggest I create a craft tutorial for ya’ll.

First, a little background. I am freelance journalist by trade, and therefore, my paychecks are irregular (to say the least) so I often find myself short on cash for things like clothes and milk.

Luckily, I am also a craft-fiend-on-caffeine.

Today, I present to you a super-easy way to turn a too-large t-shirt into a cute and fitted summer tank. This is perfect for all those free t-shirts that come your way via life (5ks, concerts, sports games, thrift-stores…)

First, you’ll need the following items (ignore the morning-hair):

1. T-shirt (at least 1 size larger than you normally wear)
2. Pair of sharp scissors
3. Thread that matches your shirt
4. A needle
5. Straight pins or safety pins (about 10)

STEP 1. Lay the t-shirt flat and cut off the bottom hem (just above the line where it was hemmed by a machine.) Save this. It will be your straps.l

STEP 2. Cut off the arms of the shirt, cutting just outside the hemmed edge of the armholes (you want to preserve the hem if possible so as to limit fraying.) You can discard these scraps or use them for another project.

STEP 3: Cut off the top of the shirt, from shoulder to shoulder, just under the collar. Discard the scraps.

Now you are left with these two pieces:

Put the strap aside for now…but it shan’t be lonely for long!

STEP 4: You’re going to pin the raw edges of the top of the shirt. Tuck a flap of the shirt towards the inside of the shirt about 1.5 inches down. Then add pins across the length of it about ¼ inch from the raw edge. This will create the tube your strap will go through. Do this to both sides.

I apologize that I used black safety pins on a black shirt (it was all I had, and considering this project is about thrifting, it didn’t make sense to get a new shirt or safety pins.)

STEP 5: Using a basic running stitch (up and down through the material) you’re going to sew across the top of each side of the shirt, using the safety pins as your guide. You want to keep the hem at least ¼ inch from the bottom (to prevent fraying) but you also need enough room for the strap.

It should like kind of like this.

STEP 6: After sewing both sides, you’re going to attach a safety pin to the edge of the strap. Fold the tip of the strap in half before pinning. It will make it easier to guide through the “tunnel” of fabric.

STEP 7: Now use the pin to guide the strap through. Start on one side, and take your time. You’ll probably have to bunch up the material a bit to get the strap through. That’s fine. Once you finish the first side, it should look like this:

STEP 8: Now you’re going to start sending the strap (with the pin still attached) through the back part of your shirt. This will create the first shoulder strap.

STEP 9: Gently tug the strap all the way through the back “tunnel” being careful not to pull the beginning end of it through the front of the shirt completely. You’ll definitely start having to bunch up your neckline material at this point, both front and back. Eventually, you’ll have it all the way through. Tie the ends together.

STEP 10: ALMOST DONE! Toss the shirt on, and adjust the bunching of the collar and back until the straps are comfortable, and you like how it looks. VOILA! You now have a cute new summer tank from a large, frumpy (albeit probably super-comfy) t-shirt. Now take terrible selfies and post online for all the world to see (JK!)

Now, if you like what you see, but feel like it’s too hard (which it isn’t. I promise) or it just seems like a pain in the ass, contact me via the contact page of my website:

http://juliebien.weebly.com/

I’d be happy to work out a business deal with ya. For the cost of shipping + $15, I can turn one of your old t-shirts into a custom tank, or, for $25 + shipping, I can pick out a shirt in a color that you’d like, either with or without a graphic, alter it, and send it to you.

Or, you could just pick up a needle and thread, put on some sweet jams (or an audio book), and sew yourself a swanky-tank!

Well, Double-Chinners, it’s been fun! Til next time! xoxoxo

It’s been an exciting past few weeks as Alyssa has been accomplishing her goals of receiving her Masters degree in Communications and I’ve been making the moves to pursue my own higher education as well. It’s getting to the point where many students will be closing their text books and shoving their school supplies into their closet to remain untouched until August.  I’ve been dealt the typical college story where all the teachers of my school have all met up and conspired together  to decide what day would be best for EVERYONE to have a major assignment due.  I’ve got a yoga practice to write along with two essays and four tests to accomplish in the next two weeks and am trying my best to get as much writing done as I can now.   One of the more exciting assignments I have to do as my Pilates final is to arrange a ten-minute work out that I’ll teach to the class on May 15th.

We’re allowed to have music…

We’re allowed to wear the cool exercise microphone head set…

Plus we’re allowed to dress up in our spiffiest work-out outfit and we’re encouraged  to bring as much energy as we can to our giant classroom.

I took this as an opportunity to teach my class like one of my work-out heroes, the one and only Richard Simmons.

April’s hand full of Richard Simmon’s derriere

Alyssa introduced me to the wonder of his exercise class at his Slimmon’s Studio in Beverly Hills about two years ago and I had a BLAST sweating my ass off with her and another blogging friend named Alexa to a musical journey through Motown.  That man has got the energy of a child who stole his Mom’s Redbull!  He was bouncing all around his studio screaming motivational yet raunchy lines about how we should be used to our thighs being sore from lifting our legs!  He was hilarious and made working out so much fun!

I’d love to capture that essence of Richard for my work-out to my Pilates class!

So far I’m plotting a 10 minute series of music from that French turntablist group C2C I mentioned a few weeks ago.  They’ve got this awesome high-energy song called “Happy”  that I have a vision of getting my classmates to “dance” along to while doing jumping jacks and bouncing upon our work-out balls. C2C also has songs that have slower parts that increase into a faster pace that I think could be perfect for when I make the class do wall-sits using one leg.

One legged wall sit

Alyssa is getting some DOUBLE CHIN DIARY t-shirts made up for us so I’ll definitely rock that but will have to jazz up my outfit with some glitter.  Maybe I should invest in a bedazzler and make myself some crazy leggings complete with sparkles all over them!

We’re encouraged to use as many Pilates exercises as we can but in my five months, it seems nearly every exercise can be included in a Pilates work-out.

In other news, I successfully made it back down to my “pre-birthday bloating” weight and am a mere pound away from reaching down into my next chunk of ten pounds.  I’ve got less than five weeks until I leave for my Europe vacation and am hoping to get rid of the tiny bit of back fat that remains stuck to my sides.  As much as I want some hot European man to handle my body with loving desire while I’m there, I have to make sure he’s not actually grabbing at my “love handles” in the process.  I’m trying to stay dedicated to my hula hoop because I know that’s one of the best tools I’ve got in whittling the fat that hovers around my waist away.  I might even post a picture to show you guys the before and after of my progress, we’ll see if I’m brave enough.

Do you have any awesome moves that you think I should include in my work-out instruction?

What are your favorite songs to work-out to?

And finally, what do you guys think of us making some work-out videos?   I am going to try to record my routine as a practice for the class but also because I think it could be cool if the Double Chin Diary started a collection of Youtube work-out videos!  Would any of you give our work-outs a try?

Lots of love,

The Double Chin Sisters working out with Richard!

With that, I’ve made a decision to start over. Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m restarting My Fitness Pal, at my current weight. I’ve been yo-yoing the past couple months, and who knows what from – muscle building, eating junk food, water retention, hormones, stress…. who knows! I’d been avoiding updating the weigh-in graph on the app, and for what? Because the number would bother me? Who cares – life goes on. I will start over. I’m starting fresh, with a clean slate, and it doesn’t matter how much weight I lost six months ago, or what weight I’m at today – what counts is that as of today, a new page has been turned. I need to track EVERYTHING on MyFitnessPal. Your support has been huge – I totally love seeing all of you stopping by the blog, writing comments to me, “liking” my updates. It really means a lot, and helps motivate me to keep trying. It’s also been awesome having April join in on the blog, because it reminds me that I’m never, ever alone, and someone with the very same blood and DNA as me shares the exact same struggles!

In addition, I’m going to start adding weekly weigh-ins again. We all know the scale and I have a mostly hateful relationship. However, I recognize that I need it to keep me in check. My first weigh in update will be posted on Friday, and I’m going to try reaaaaally hard to keep it up, because I need some more transparency about that number. I can’t disregard the amazing progress I’ve made so far, in particular, I’m thrilled at my transformation from out-of-shape to somewhat-fit. I look forward to getting stronger, better and faster, and am loving the new support system I have with my workout buddies Susannah, Merrie and Sally.

When you’re trying to change bad habits, do you ever find yourself just wanting to start over? It doesn’t need to be cold turkey, but it needs to be a marked point for me, where I say, “Ok, I’m starting over. I’m going to forget the past and just live in the present and focus on making a better future.”

Now – help me with my first starting over challenge. Next Thursday, I’m going to Mexico for a five day vacation. How do I log my food when I won’t have internet access? Should I go old-school and use a pen and paper, or try and trust myself without logging? Should I enjoy my vacay and eat what I want, but in moderation?

I started graduate school in 2010, twoweeks after I got married, and two months after I had scored a big promotion. I remember nervously sitting around a table of unfamiliar faces, still glowing from my honeymoon, starting to freak out a little bit as my eyes scanned the lengthy syllabus of research methods. At work, I went from a copywriter to a content manager, managing a team of three people, writing Facebook updates and blogs for nine different brands. I worked at least 45 hours a week and went to class at night, exhausted, bleary-eyed and hungry, but I made it through with my laptop, diet coke and the support of my husband and family.

I had intended for grad school to take two years, but as the reality of school set in, I knew it would take longer. I ended up staying for three years, and in those three years, I met wonderful friends, some of whom read this blog. (Hi Julie, Emily, Lauren, Virginia and Luis!) I also worked my way through stress-eating (Something I’m still fighting), cried when my 36 page literature review came back for the 10th time needing more revisions (I’m not exaggerating. That %&$#! lit review came back ten times!), traveled to Thailand, lost my sweet kitty Leo, and did a million other things. Life always went on, but it went on with a giant weight on my shoulders – my thesis. I turned down fun party invitations, missed family vacations and spent hours glued to my computer. I wrote and re-wrote huge chunks of the same text, over and over again. I made a lot of sacrifices for the past three years to work on this thesis, but I was always grateful I had the opportunity to be learning and to be in grad school. It was hard. But I did it.

The first photo of me as Alyssa Curran, MA. Taken minutes after my thesis was approved – with happy tears still shiny in my eyes!

Last Thursday, at 2 pm, I paced the hallways of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication while my thesis committee deliberated my final project. I had come prepared with 106 pages of my own work, two PDFs of the social media handbook you can read at SocialSyllabi.com, and a cheat sheet of notes. I defended my project in front of two women I greatly respect, both who are doctorates, one in education, one in journalism, women who have worked at the Los Angeles Times and have been embedded in war zones. At the end of an hour and a half of changes, they signed a paper and shook my hand – I had just earned my master’s degree!

When they signed the paper, I wanted to leap across the table and hug them. Tears flooded my eyes and I had to do that embarrassing fan-your-face thing to prevent myself from bursting into happy, joyous tears. I have worked SO HARD for this degree, and I am so proud of myself. I’m not usually a braggart (ok, fine, sometimes I can be), but I’ve been basking in my accomplishment the past week. I have a MASTER’S DEGREE before I’m even 28 years old. THAT is awesome. THAT is accomplishment. THAT is hard work, and opportunity, and commitment – and THAT reminds me that this whole weight loss thing? It might be the hardest thing I’ve ever worked on in my life, but I can do this, too. My Master’s Degree taught me a lot. Not just about dedication and time, but about perseverance. About not throwing in the towel when all you want to do is quit. About keeping going, when your eyes are heavy and your heart is tired. About not comparing yourself to others, about realizing this journey is your own – no one elses, and if your heart is in it, you will get there, regardless of your pace. I need to remember these thoughts, these feelings, when the number on the scale is up, when my jeans feel snug, when I compare myself to a thin girl and think that I am not enough. I can do this. I will do this.

My sweet friend Ruby and I in 2008. We are still friends to this day!

My master’s degree is so much more to me than just a paper saying I’m well educated in the field of mass communication and media. It’s a reminder for me that when I work hard, I can do anything. I just need to remember to take it one step at a time, believe in myself, and try my best. On May 21 I’ll once again walk across the Oviatt Library steps, exactly five years after I earned my BA in Journalism in the same spot. In a lot of ways, I’m a different person than who I was in 2008, but one thing remains the same – my ambition to make my life worth living to the fullest, every minute of every day. I am proud of the person I am, and you should be proud of who you are, too.

So tell me – what is one thing in your life, big or small, that makes you proud of the person you are today?

But unfortunately the days when I could stay in bed with the three C’s  (coloring books, crayons, and cartoons) are over and I still need to attend to my responsibilities of school and work.

I have taken a break from my usual tennis, Pilates, and yoga although I gave tennis a shot on Wednesday and ended up totally overexerting myself, causing me to come home and skip the next three classes and leave work early.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to do so well when it came to the exercise so I’ve been making up for it by really trying to stick with a routine.   I’ve been consistently eating my servings of beans with a big salad at lunch along with my light breakfasts and dinners.  I have also been rocking my water intake but I also think that’s because all my medicine is making me super thirsty.

I got to spend the weekend away with my best girl friends for a Monterey Bay weekend.  We stayed in the exciting town of Salinas where people with pink hair must be pretty rare as I got quite a few stares.  I indulged myself after doing a ton of walking for dinner at my seventh brewery of the month,  Monterey Coast Brewing.  That night my friends and I stayed in our hotel room doing our nails and making a big batch of “hotel guacamole”.  I love the life of a 30 year old, haha!  Who needs clubs and overpriced drinks when you can have your best friends in a hotel room with a plate of guacamole!??!

In my element making a simple guacamole of avocados, garlic powder, salt, and lime!

This week has been way better than last week as I’ve been finding out more in regards to my Math situation and college.  It turns out that the two years of algebra I took in high school totally have counted this whole time as prerequisites!  I’ve already gotten  that transferred over  and I’m all set to give a try at statistics, a class everyone assures me I’ll be better at since it’s “real life math”.  I feel confident because I’ve been informed on all the best teachers in my area who do open-book tests and no homework! Haha!  I may not be smart at math but I sure am crafty at working the system… but not crafty enough to figure this out before I took  the class I’m in now!   Thank you all for your support about that, it was awesome to see that some of you have had issues like myself as well!

In spirit of avocados which are so nice and cheap right now in California – how do YOU make your guacamole?!

Avocados for all,

I feel like this piece is the musical accompaniment to my life the past three weeks. As you know, I’m in the final stages of finishing my master’s degree, a three-year long process that’s caused me a lot of grief. When you write a thesis, you go through millions of revisions, up to the point that you “defend”, which means you basically defend your completed work in front of a small group people and respond back to the comments and constructive criticism your graduate committee might have. At this point they can either sign a piece of paper granting you approval, and you graduate, or they can say they need more changes before they sign it and hopefully you’ll graduate, or they can say “You’re SOL”. I’ve been making changes left and right, and I’m really hoping on Thursday when I defend that I’ll have minimal changes to make before I get the all-clear to graduate. It’s been crazy… and I’m ready to get my life back to the still very busy but totally doable routine of work, blog, fitness, relationships, friends and maybe, just maybe, house-hunting. (PS big shout out to April for being so awesome and picking up my blogging slack! You go, girl!)

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been stressed. My desire to stress-eat has been intense. After one particularly rough day last week when I got the first set of revisions and 10 e-mails stared me down with lists of things I had to immediately change, my first instinct was to make popcorn and crunch away my anxiety. But I didn’t – I took a quick walk around the block, came back, had a mango, and settled down to get to it.

Yes, I still ate out of stress, but it was a small mango – much less damaging than a bowl of calorie-laden salty crunchy popcorn. (PS – My latest passionate fruit love affair is definitely Mango. I just took our relationship to the next level by buying the giant jumbo pack from Costco!) I’m still making time to fit in exercise, and tonight, I met with a friend (Hi Suz!) for a long leisurely walk. I’m trying to view exercise as less of an item on my to-do list and more of as a natural stress relief. I know those endorphins will mellow me out, because my body’s been in a particularly flighty panic mode as I imagine not graduating and being sentenced to what feels like the rest of my life in grad school. But that’s just anxiety – anxiety I can work through by getting good nights of sleep, eating well, and fitting in exercise when I can. It’s weeks like this that remind me even if the scale isn’t showing what I want, I’ve made huge changes in my life when it comes to food and fitness.The old Alyssa would have no problem eating popcorn when stressed, nor would she hesitate to blow off all forms of fitness just because it was one more thing to do. But Alyssa 2.0 knows that living a healthy life means not just losing weight, but managing stress, too.

Have you been stressed out this week? How are you managing it?

• While I am certainly not a morning person, getting a great work out before the day begins is awesome. It was done for the day and I went to work feeling nice and awake and stretched out and limber.
• I have lazy tendencies, and need to push myself to work harder when it comes to fitness. My bootcamp instructor was great about encouraging me to do more, and it worked. Sometimes a gentle nudge is all I need.
• Five weeks seems short, but it made A LOT of difference in my fitness regimen. How much? Let’s see!

On the first day of the class, we did baseline fitness testing where for one full minute, we counted the number of crunches, squats, sprints and “six inches” that we could do. Six Inches means you hold your feet and legs off the floor, six inches above the ground, using your core to support you.

Here’s my baseline fitness test next to my scores after five weeks:

I was most proud of my improvements on plank. For some reason, the plank is always the fitness move that eludes me, where I try and try to hoist my body up, teetering on my elbows like a hot dog held up by toothpicks. I’ve finally mastered it, and at the beginning of the five weeks, I thought I was going to die after 15 seconds – and now I can actually hold it up to a minute and 30 seconds. AWESOME!

As you can see above, I improved in every category except for sprints. I am tryiiiiing so hard to like running, but I think I finally hit the nail on the head for why it’s not uber enjoyable for me. It’s HARD to move this body, with an extra 70 pounds. I am agile, flexible and strong, but I am not FAST – and that’s so much of what running seems to be. However, I recognize that it’s an amazing cardio element, so I’m going to try to keep it up.

All in all, after five weeks of bootcamp, I lost 9 inches over all and greatly improved my fitness. I’m already debating signing up again because it felt so much more rewarding for me than my gym. As much as I love Zumba and boxing, this fitness regimen really got me movin’ and combined cardio and strength, and I loved being outside in the morning, watching the squirrels find their breakfast, seeing the sun rising up over the smoggy skies of Los Angeles.

As far as weight, I haven’t gotten on the scale since last week’s kerfuffle, but I’ll be back on it soon. When I’m done with school, I have an appointment with my doctor, just to double check that hormonally, everything is right. Sometimes you just have a feeling something’s wrong, and I want to just double check. In reflecting back, losing weight has been about 94% impossible for me the past year, so I just need to confirm that it’s all good in the hood and it’s likely behavior (food) and not physiology (hormones) that’s making this so challenging.

Anyhoo! So that was bootcamp! I surprisingly loved it.

I hope you have a fantastic Monday – I’ll be back tomorrow!