Teeth Yanking

A long weekend was so relaxing and great!! We spend a lot of time working on the house, attending BBQs, graduation parties and catching up on some much needed zzzzzssss. But today it is back to the grind.

However, I'm really looking forward to a weekend at Gigglemoor and celebrating my 28th birthday (Jim, I'm only 27 currently!) But before I get to the weekend I have to have two of my molars pulled out tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it.

I have been having TMJ, or lock jaw, for the past few months. It hurts a little, but more than anything it makes me self conscious eating in front of others. Basically, if I open my mouth a little wider than a Popsicle, my jaw will pop in and out of place (insert that's what she said here)! Because it's my own jaw it's extremely loud to me, but I think that it is also loud to others and I often times avoid eating with others unless I'm comfortable with you. Plus, Jim complains about it when we eat.

Well, I don't do well with general anestethia, so I opted to just get a local anesthetic . I did this with my wisdom teeth too, so I"m hoping since these aren't impacted this will be much easier than before and lead to a shorter recovery time. I won't miss the teeth, they basically now are just being used as bumpers against my other teeth, which is wearing out my jaw and causing it to lock in place.

So, hopefully this will fix the problem and I won't need additional work. Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully come Friday I will be back to normal. It will drive me nuts not being able to workout or play sports for a day or two, but I'm hoping for the best!

Saving Your Life In More Than One Way

So I hardly ever click on the top news stories featured on AIM every morning, but one headline caught my eye "Woman's Abs Save Her Life".

I was curious to know and maybe find out more reasons why I shouldn't drink beer, eat cheeseburgers and cheat sometimes in my abs classes and this story seemed to have it. Well, it's an amazing story and another reason to stay fit but somehow I'm not seeing myself ever paragliding for fun around sharp jagged rocks off the coast of Australia anytime soon.

This woman was about to take off paragliding when a gust of wind picked her up and pummeled her into a sharp bed of rocks, dragging her across by her abdomen. The injuries she suffered would have killed most of us, but thanks to her extremely toned abs she survived.

Read the full story here.

I think the gist of this post is next time I'm thinking of skipping that abs class or not doing sit ups I might rethink it...or I might not.

Disaster

We have officially moved!!! Last Saturday we moved into our new house and have since been living in a total disaster zone. They are finishing the bathroom upstairs and the closets, so we have no access to the master bedroom or closets. I can't stand the chaos and how disorganized things are- I'm about to blow up! It literally looks like this. And somehow it's not bothering Jim as much as it's bothering me!

Because of the move we have had to eat out A LOT and I am beginning to feel gross. I can't wait until we have a full functioning kitchen and the ability to make healthy food. While looking up the calorie count for the carry out Chinese we ate last night I came across the grossest food ever!!!

It's from In-N-Out Burger and part of their "not so secret" menu. Basically, if you go to their website and look it up you can find this and if you eat there frequently you know all about it. They have ways to dress your burger and some people have decided that it would be a good idea to dress your fries. So the picture to the right shows what this would consist of: french fries, grilled onions, cheese, thousand island dressing - just GROSS and a heart attack on a plate.

Boot Camp

So, as you know I was in San Diego last week for a little bit of work and pleasure and unbeknown st to me pain. Jim’s sister Molly works out regularly at a Boot Camp run by a Navy Seal who served from ’92-’94 and now just enjoys torturing innocent souls like me for fun! Alright, he tortures people to get them into top class shape and does an excellent job doing it.

Anyways, Jim informed us that if we wanted we could join a workout of his on Friday morning at 6AM at a local park. I thought, why not, I’m in shape and love working out let’s see what he has for me. In the meantime, Jim told me how hard it was, that people puke and that I might end up passed out in the end. So as the day got closer and closer my nerves were building and I was actually terrified to workout with him. I had the feeling I used to get driving to soccer games in high school, my stomach was all tight and I felt like I might just pee myself or worse yet poo myself (oh shut it, you know what I’m talking about when you get nervous).

When we pulled up to the park there were several other people there to join in the fun, this eased my nerves a bit. But then lickety split that all changed. Next thing I new I was doing on the ground doing push-ups, bear crawls, jumping jacks, more push-ups, mountain climbers and squats for what seemed like an hour. We kept this routine going for about 30 minutes!!! I already had stripped off my jacket and had pit stains that were almost my whole shirt (see photo for proof). After this ended we got about 30 seconds for water and were directed to head over for some wind sprints. For the next 30 minutes we did wind sprints with push-ups, crawls, more push-ups and backwards runs until I felt like I was going to either puke or die.

Then as quick as it started it was over. One hour of high intensity exercise had come and gone with little to no breaks. After the feeling of death passed I felt great about myself. I had pushed my limits and survived and as gross and sweaty as I was I wanted more. Now, the next two days when my chest and shoulders killed from the push-ups not so much, but it was worth it – all 200 push-ups that we did not on our knees!

Chris Keith's Boot Camp is awesome and if you live in the San Diego area I highly suggest attending his camp! I wish we had someone like this in Cincinnati because it is worth it. You can get up before work or hit it up after work! By far the hardest and most rewarding workout I’ve even completed!

Changing Lives

This past weekend we had our first ever SparkPeople Convention in San Diego!!! For the past few months a co-worker and I have been working really hard to pull this event off, especially the last two weeks (notice the lapse in blogs). From the flowers to the AV we literally did it all and it couldn't have gone any better.

I really didn't know what to expect going into the event. I couldn't have told you if it was going to be a bust or spectacular, lucky for us it was better than imagined. Going into the event we had a lot of buzz and the members were extremely excited - that made me feel awesome...but I can't even describe how much this escalated the day of the event.

At SparkPeople we work everyday to better peoples lives, inside and out. Our members are the greatest and love all employees. This Convention confirmed for me that what I do everyday is literally saving people's lives and changing them for the better. I'm going to admit it, I cried a few times hearing members stories. Members who lost more than 200 pounds, recovered financially thanks to our tips and even contemplated suicide before finding SparkPeople.

Can you imagine how it feels to work at a place every day where you actually have the chance to see all the people's lives you have changed? This made me love my job even more than before. Our members were so excited to meet us, even measly old me, that I took a few photographs and signed autographs for them - that was surreal to me.

I still feel I am on the SParkPeople Convention rush and can't wait until the next one. San Diego was an awesome place and the Convention was just amazing! All the hard work, sweat and tears we put into it was well worth it.