Thinking Out loud

Thinking Out Loud #48

May 26, 2016 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hey everyone!! How’s your week going? We are almost at a holiday weekend, yay!! It’s Thursday so it’s time for some thinking out loud, random style.

I was excited to get my Fabletics package yesterday. I had ordered a dress earlier in the month but didn’t like the fit so back it went. I decided to get store credit and finally placed my order last week which included a new top, underwear and socks ( <-super exciting right?!). Anyway I love my new top! It’s my favorite color, aka matches my eyes and I think it’s supposed to be a workout top but I really like it for an everyday top. In fact, I am planning to wear it to work today. We have a pretty casual office, jeans allowed EVERYDAY!! I usually wear jeans twice a week and tomorrow after work we are having a casual happy hour so I want to be wearing casual clothes.
OK guys I think it’s summer now. Well I hope I didn’t jinx that, but it was in the high 80s yesterday and I probably should have sunscreened my ears along with my face, arms and feet during lunch, but I will remember that next time. Sunscreen is an important part of my lunch in the summer. I love to soak up the sun in a safe way. Last year it only took like 3 months to get a tan with spf 50 and sitting by the pool every weekend…but it was seriously the most tan I have probably been and in a safe way. In other words, I want to stay looking young even if I currently get mistaken for an 18 year old at the moment. I know later in life I will wish to be younger.
lunch outside plus sunscreen
I have mentioned before we have some homeless kitties around my apartment complex. They seem to do pretty well for being homeless. I buy some cat treats and when I see them in the evening, I give them to them. The black kitty will eat the treats but not let me pet him. The two others let me pet them. Actually the dark orange one is kinda an attention hog and the light one slapped him so he sat away from us for a bit. Then the dark orange one was following me until someone came out of the apartment and he ran. He is so friendly to everyone as long as you approach slowly. He was friendly to me before I started to buy treats. There are also 2 grey cats, but I didn’t see them last night.

4. Let’s have a little #throwbackThursday as this came up on my Timehop yesterday. 3 years ago when I went to explore Illinois Beach State Park. It was a bit of a chilly day but I was

having fun doing some yoga in shorts for a bit.

5. I finally got to sign up for Wanderlust 108 in Philadelphia. They just announced the date Oct 8, 2016 (I love how the date is 10/8 like 108) so if you are around Philadelphia, you should totally join. It will be tons of fun with a 5k that you can run or walk (I will probably be walking), yoga, meditation and more. Tickets were $33 for individual and I bought the picnic lunch as well because it sounded good and it’s an experience so why not. Here is the link to buy tickets and let me know if you are coming.

6. I think that is all I have to share for now. Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!! I am thinking of going to see the new Alice movie and counting down to Finding Dory.

Are you looking forward to any movies coming out?

Do you have plans for memorial day?

Thinking Out Loud #47

May 19, 2016 by Alicia 8 Comments

Happy Thursday!! I am so happy we have made it to Thursday at least. Tomorrow I am working from home, so it will be slightly more relaxed as I won’t have to commute and I am signing off early to headed to Binghamton for a bridal shower for a friend on Saturday. Then I come back on Saturday since I teach yoga Sunday. Yay for a 20 hr weekend vacation!!

As I type this I am full of energy after going to my first pole flow class. The first pole class I checked out was focused a lot on strength and pole basics of pulling yourself up. That was great and all but it was fun to do a little dancing with the pole last night. I really love the environment of the pole studio as everyone I have met is so friendly. One girl who it was only her second time at the place too, she filmed the video of my dancing at the end.

Speaking of videos, anyone know if you take a video upright on your phone how do you flip it so you don’t have to turn your head sideways to watch it once it is on your computer?

I am so glad my confidence is building. I don’t care how silly I look in pole, we are there simply to have fun, just like in a zumba class, only a bit sexier 😉 .

2. On another note, I have been on a dark chocolate kick, which I think I mentioned. I think Lily’s dark chocolate is a new favorite of mine. Green and Black was also really good in some almond butter cookies I made.

3. Before pole last night, I made an avocado protein smoothie. My go to before a workout. This time I added hemp seeds which I had never done before, but I loved it. I forgot to snap a photo though. Maybe I will post the recipe next time.

4. Between teaching yoga and attending fitness classes in the evenings, I don’t have that much down time. In the little bit of extra time I have, even if 20 minutes, I have been reading Miracles Now or journaling. I think it is better to do a bit of reading instead of draining my brain on Netflix (plus I finished Gilmore Girls again and caught up on Young and Hungry and Baby Daddy and don’t really feel like getting sucked into another show at the moment).

5. I taught a wonderful gentle (or slow flow) class on Tuesday night with the theme of grounding and the people loved it. I think I am finally figuring out what they like and hopefully everyone will continue to come back because they were talking about possibly canceling my Tuesday night class, but I hope it can stay. I actually had 10 people Tuesday night. Monday night I subbed and only had 1 person so they had a nice private class lol. Since May began, I feel like attendance has been lower, between graduations and such maybe.

6. I thought about taking a full rest day today as my right foot has been hurting a bit and I can’t pinpoint where exactly. It mostly hurts when I wear shoes, otherwise I don’t notice it which is interesting. I don’t know what I did but I have been doing a lot of walking. I decided to still get to the gym this morning, focusing on seated exercises, warming up with the bike and then working my arms and abs. I plan to take a full rest day tomorrow and Saturday. Sunday I have to teach yoga but besides that it will be a weekend of rest and see how that goes. I know I have been working out quite a bit and so I believe my body is telling me to slow down and take a step back.

7. I got a new shirt from TBV apparel. Alisha Leytem has been doing videos on the chakras and it is defintiely getting me inspired. I am realizing how closed a lot of my chakras are and one I have been working on is my heart chakra. When I saw this shirt, I just wanted it so that when I wear it, it can be a reminder to “Let Love in”.

8. Since I don’t like to end on odd numbers, hope you all have a wonderful day and remember to “Let Love In”

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I will be back on Monday with my weekend recap.

Transformation Thursday: TOL #46

May 12, 2016 by Alicia 6 Comments

As you may know, I recently finished doing about 4 weeks (consistent for like 3.5 weeks) of low carb high fat. This was the first time I have really tracked my eating. I knew that to step up my game to the next level and see better results, I had to focus on my eating as well as workouts. For the month of April, I participated in Becky’s booty bootcamp. I realized how much I have neglected my legs in workouts so this was really good for me. I did have to skip a couple days of workouts as it became a little too much and modified when needed. I definitely noticed results, but since I combined a new meal plan with the workouts I can’t say what results you would get by just doing one or the other.

I wish I had taken measurements because I can feel that I lost inches, but here are some things I noticed after doing low carb and a booty bootcamp for a month.

Stomach is slimmer
Bigger gap between my legs (honestly I never cared much about the thigh gap, but my legs do feel more muscular which I like)
Backs of my thighs look better (it’s probably the one part of my body I hate looking at in the mirror)
Some shirts feel like they are looser
Pants definitely fit better
I don’t feel bloated ( <- definitely diet related)
I can feel full and satisfied with fewer carbs!

The other day on my timehop, a picture came up from me trying on some shorts in May last year.

This was right after I completed my yoga teacher training. Since I canceled my gym membership to focus on yoga, I actually was a lot more stressed at the end of my training. I loved the training and hanging out with everyone on the weekends, but I really did increase the number of carbs I ate because of the weird timing of meals and not knowing when exactly our break would be and not wanting to eat too close to when yoga class started, etc. Carbs, protein bars, were easy to bring along. I did pack salads and other healthy things for a dinner, but I would snack a lot throughout the morning and whenever we had a break. Because I was only doing yoga and not weight lifting or swimming, I did gain at least 5 pounds because my body wasn’t burning as many calories. I didn’t feel my best at the end of training. [Side note: I would definitely recommend the training I did to anyone interested. I loved it! I just wish I would have found a way to include some more variety of workouts for myself]

Around the time of the picture I was settling into a new routine, trying to find a gym in a new area since I moved at the end of my training and figure out a good workout routine. There were a lot of tears shed (sorry Brian) as I tried to figure it out. I decided last May to join RetroFitness so that I could start doing 5am workouts. While I had joined a YMCA in April 2015, it didn’t open until 5:30am and going after work just wasn’t working well and the money per month wasn’t worth it when I didn’t like the Zumba class and yoga times didn’t work for me. It has now been a year and I still do my 5am workouts. I made it through winter!! YAY! I love RetroFitness when it comes to weightlifting as the weights are always in order in the morning. I may not be able to do squats with a squat rack (there is 1 but usually in use), but I have been working on my bench press, pull ups and more. Now because I didn’t have a pool and you had to pay extra for the classes at Retro, I joined LA Fitness once my YMCA membership was up and that has worked out for swimming, Zumba and I now teach yoga there. [Yes I’m a member at two gyms, but it saved me $5 a month compared to the YMCA in my area]

It is great to look back on what I have accomplished with my workouts in the last year. Throughout these 12 months, I have greatly increased my arm strength, but as I mentioned above, my leg workouts were lacking. Now that I have some leg workouts to reference and I tried this new way of eating and my body is adjusting, I am feeling great. Sometimes it is hard to look at the labels of crackers and pasta, etc and see all those carbs, but I ate what I wanted this past weekend without tracking and did well. Some days I will just do that. I know I will survive and now I also know I can live with less carbs (as much as I like them). I feel more confident in myself and with my body. The new way of eating let me shed 5 lbs I was holding onto. I feel more comfortable in my jeans. They were getting tight, which has never happened to me. In my past, I have lost weight without trying and I believe it was due to not eating enough food especially when I became lactose intolerant and dropped ice cream and milk from my diet. Then in college I lived off the salad bar and didn’t eat enough, came home after a year with the freshman -5. I seem to have this fear that I won’t eat enough hence my grabbing all the snacks around yoga training, but now I am beginning to learn how much I really need. It has taken many years and it is a constant learning process of how much should I eat, but I feel the closest I have ever been.

For another comparison here is 1 month and a booty shot.

Finding last year’s photo was a reminder to me that progress takes time. You may not always see results on the outside, but they are working on the inside. Remember beauty comes from within.

2 years in Philadelphia: TOL#45

April 28, 2016 by Alicia 2 Comments

On April 28, 2014 I arrived at my first apartment in the suburbs of Philadelphia around dinner time, but there was no time for eating dinner as I quickly got in and unpacked my car.

I have been trying to think of what to write today as I reflect on the last 2 years. This Tuesday April 26, I briefly looked at my Timehop and read my Instagram post from last year about how I was preparing for my yoga final exam and the previous year I was setting out to drive to Philadelphia. What a significant day that is for my life in the last 2 years.

Instagram post by me on April 26, 2015

“One year ago today I packed up my car and headed out for my drive towards Philadelphia, no job, just hopes of finding one and learning more about myself. On May 2, 2014 I went to a yoga studio that I had never been to before hoping to be accepted to their teacher training program. Today I have my yoga teacher training final. It has been an incredible journey. Not only have I grown from setting out on an adventure on my own in a completely new place, but also the last 6 months I have dived deeper into myself through yoga teacher training. There is still so much more to learn but I am incredibly thankful for this experience. Today is an emotional day as we take our final but hopefully we all graduate and see each other one last time all together on Friday May 1. Almost exactly 1 year after I met two of my fellow yogi trainees in our meeting. I couldn’t have gotten this far without them and also without the wonderful yoga community here on Instagram. Spending a moment by the river this morning feeling the warm sun and reflecting. Thank you to everyone who supports me and wish me good luck today.”

Maybe this is why I have had cravings this week, experiencing emotion. I am not even in my PMS week and I actually am lucky I don’t experience too many whirlwind of emotions during that time but this week, Monday I really craved carbs. I kept guzzling water thinking maybe I was thirsty but then it just wasn’t working. I decided to have a bowl of Arctic Zero ice cream (which you must try if you haven’t, OMG so good) maybe that would help. It was delicious but I was still antsy and craving carbs. I know I am going low carb right now but I caved Monday, probably my highest about of grams of carbs in a day in two weeks. I had a few handfuls of granola and then finally I made some peppermint tea to wind down the night and that seemed to help.
Tuesday was primary voting day in PA and I drove to the polls at 6:45. I had google mapped the location to know exactly where I was going which was pretty much around the corner just to a building I hadn’t noticed before. It happened to be next to dunkin donuts and all I was thinking about was an unsweetened iced tea. After finally getting into the building to vote at 7am (turned out a few of us where waiting at the wrong entrance but a gentleman let us in and walk through to the correct location). Voting was quick and I headed home and walked to the train. Once I got to the city I stopped for that iced tea finally. I couldn’t get it off my mind. I will tell you I fully enjoyed every sip too. That’s the benefit to treats from time to time is that you enjoy them more.

iced tea treat — I take awesome photos while walking…

Anyway 2 years…I really can’t believe it has been that long already. Starting from nothing, no job, not even any furniture and now in less than 2 months I will have been at my company for 2 years. A lot has changed there as the company is growing and I have certainly had my fair share of being involved in many departments. It wasn’t long after I started working that I dove into yoga teacher training (which I actually researched before moving, gyms and yoga studios were top priority). To have graduated yoga training a year ago feels so unreal. After a bit of a break from yoga I found my way back and started teaching in January. While I know my teaching has a long way to go I am finally less nervous and enjoying it more.

During the last year, I also found my way back into weight training beginning in April last year with aid from Susie. However it wasn’t until May/June time that I finally established a better routine going to workout at 5am some days each week. It’s a time that no one can mess up except me if I don’t get out of bed or if my tires on my car have issues, but that is another story. The workout may be short but I have become stronger over time (HELLO! I can finally do a pull up without assistance!!). It starts my day off right. I feel better getting a workout done early and relaxing/blogging in the evening. I’ve been working on myself a lot this past year and figuring out what truly makes me happy while also trying my best to live in the present and really have a positive mind. Be more thankful for what I do have and continue to work towards my life goals.

I do not feel there is ever really an end to this kind of work on myself. It is continuous as not everyday is a good day but I feel a little bit closer to those life goals I have.

I still believe this move I took 2 years ago was one of the best decisions of my life even if everything hasn’t gone perfectly. I’ve grown to be even more independent. I have had more time to reflect on myself, my needs and my goals.

It also helped my relationship with Brian because as I worked on myself, I realized how negative I was and now I am constantly striving to be more positive, to have an open mind and believe that things will work out. I know Brian has seen that and it’s part of the reason he finally proposed, seeing a life with me, a positive me. It requires hard work, but in these two years I know I have improved both physically and mentally. I hope to continue down this path of improvement with myself and surrounding myself with positive people (even if that refers to many positive bloggers <– seriously you guys get me through my days sometimes).

I’m so glad I started this little space on the internet to recap as I went through yoga training and also just all the changes in my life. There are still so many more changes I know will come and that’s why this space is called “Bridges through Life” because if you don’t change, life would be boring. You need to cross a bridge multiple times in life and this blog follows my journey through it. One of my favorite quotes I remember from my college orientation is “Life is a journey, not a guided tour.”

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