Home

Well we've arrived back in California and already eaten at Super Mex and I've done some shopping. The flight to California was interesting because Greg and I didn't fly out from Narita on the same plane. I bought my tickets on September 1st and I bought Greg's much later once we confirmed he would be able to go with us. So basically I assumed that Gabi and I were flying on United from Narita and we were in fact flying on ANA. We of course didn't realize this until we were checking into the airport in Naha and the lady at the desk informed us. Greg arrived in California a half hour before us and was able to tell his family and mine where we were because we flew into the international terminal instead of the United terminal. Gabriella was amazing on the flight. Although I packed enough entertainment to keep the entire plane occupied for the 10 hour flight, the only thing she used was her ipod and she only watched one show then turned it off. She spent the majority of her time playing with her Ariel doll and sleeping. She was fairly well rested considering when we arrived at LAX it was 3 am Okinawa time.

Lunch was delicious, the real Mexican food was a tasty treat. SuperMex has been on Greg's mind since we got his ticket to come home. After lunch Greg and Gabriella took a nice long nap while I went shopping. It's so nice to have so many choices of where to shop. I bought myself some long sleeved shirts and a new pair of jeans. I bought a lot of clothes for Gabriella, some that she will wear on this trip others I will save for Christmas. I still need to go to the Children's Place and a few other stores.

This morning Greg and I went running together. He was nice enough to go slow so I could keep up. We ran around his parent's neighborhood looking at all the houses decorated for Halloween. I'm not sure how far we ran but time wise we ran for about 40-45 minutes. I think I'm all ready to run again by myself later in the week.

Checking off my lists

We leave for vacation today. I'm almost packed and ready to go, I say almost because I'm waiting for clothes to dry in my slow dryer. I went to boot camp this morning and because of the rain we were left to our own devices in the gym. I did the elliptical machine for 45 minutes then called it a day. It was nice to have a little time this morning to put all things vacation in the back of my mind. I feel I've been prepping for this trip for months. It's nice to know we will be heading to the airport in a little over an hour and the only real thing I have left to do is get Gabriella to school for picture day. The dishes are done, the bags are packs, the ipods and computer are charged, we are ready. I'm excited about going home, to see my friends and family. I'm also a little nervous about keeping up with my exercise routines and my eating. It's pretty easy here because I go to boot camp everyday, I feel accountable. However, when I go home I almost feel like I'll be overwhelmed by the sheer number of restaurant dinners, of soda, of choices. I hope I'll be able to stay strong and eat clean. I suppose if I don't it just means running a little longer.

How many ways can you do a push up

Today in boot camp we learned the fine art of doing a push up and a reverse push up. I must say it was really hard and I'm very sweaty as I type this post. There are few things harder for me to do in life than a push up. When I started boot camp I was able to do exactly 1 in 2 minutes. Now I'm pleased to say I can do more than that, today I did quite a few before reverting to using my knees. I suppose with less weight to lift coupled with stronger arm muscles a push up is no longer beyond the realm of possibilities for me. We worked on form and why it's important, the gist is if you do a push up wrong you put stress on different parts of your body like shoulders and elbows which will eventually cause injury. It was an interesting if painful lesson.

I only have one run between me and my vacation. I have loads of things to do before the trip but I'm looking forward to running tomorrow. For that one hour I'm going to move my to do lists to the back of my mind and just enjoy putting one foot in front of the other without a care in the world.

Early Bird Catches the Worm

Alright so right now it's 4:27 in the morning and I'm trying to finish this blog before I go running. My life has taken a busy turn as of late and I'm struggling to fit everything in. I have managed to put myself first though and still make it to boot camp and my extra cardio workout. Yesterday at boot camp we got another lecture, this time about the importance of tapping into our inner strength. And an explanation about why we stop trying when things get hard, why we avoid the struggles. I find the struggle to be difficult, but to achieve something while struggling makes it that much sweeter. Like fresh squeezed lemonade, it tastes so much better than powdered lemonade because you know the struggle it was to make. Yesterday was also Cardio Funk, which I think I'll actually miss when I go on vacation. Every time I go to it I feel like I got a tremendous workout, like I've gone to supernatural in just finishing it. After I had to go to the commissary all sweaty and gross, but I looked at it as a badge of honor, showing everyone that I had a good workout.

Well I've already done my run for the day. I made it three laps around the short track of the blue line. It was a little over 3 miles. I was hoping to do four laps but I ran out of time. It was an accomplishment because I ran the entire 3 laps, no walking. I'm proud of myself and I hope that I can keep up the improvement.

Zumba Roomba

Today was the first day of another boot camp week. This morning we did some triceps exercises that required us to support our own body weight and bend our elbows. It was hard like most exercises that we do. I wonder if 9 weeks about I could have supported my weight, although it's less now I still struggled. I think if we were given this exercise at the beginning of the program I would have baulked at it, completely refusing to try. Now I tried, it was hard but I still did it to the best of my ability. I suppose that's the major change that has happened as a result of this boot camp, I'm no longer afraid of trying. If I see a big hill or a steep flight of stairs I don't find another way around it, I simply do my best to tackle the obstacle in front of me.

Since we are leaving on vacation on Friday I'm working hard on getting in my extra cardio exercise during the week. Today I went to Zumba, it's an aerobic class that incorporates latin dance and exercise. It's a very cool class, I like the music, I like the instructor and I love that it's a hard workout but I don't notice because I'm busy dancing. Today was the second class I've attended and I think I'm getting better. After the Zumba class there is a 30 minutes abs and core strengthening class. Of course I stayed because why not, I'm already sweaty and it's only another half an hour. It was a great class and I feel good that I've gone. Now only 4 more days of boot camp until vacation!!!

Dam Weekend

This weekend started out with me going to Cardio Funk on Saturday. It was the hardest class to date, we worked out for 25 minutes on abs to start then 50 minutes of Cardio. It was brutal. I even had to stop on the way home to buy an extra bottle of water, the lady at Coco's looked at me a little funny. Probably because I was drenched in sweat and smelled horrible. Once I got home Greg made a delicious breakfast of turkey bacon and yummy eggs. It made me giddy it was so good. Then we headed out to the new Exchange, Greg got a new ribbon for his uniform and he had to pick up a new ribbon bar. After shopping we stopped on the seawall for lunch. Then home for a quick rest. Our next stop was a barbeque at one of Greg's corpsman's houses, where Gabi fell in love with her dogs. Gabriella spent the entire time petting and playing with fluffy and rusty. Next stop was Foster Fest, where Gabriella bounced in bouncy houses, ran through a maze, rode a train and won a giant inflatable stitch. It's actually the girl from stitch but I don't know her name, Gabriella has named her Pearl.

Sunday I had CCD which Gabi accompanied me to and then we all went to church. It was the first day that Gabriella went to the children's section of the mass. She seemed to love it and was very proud of the worksheet she completed. After church we went home to change and then went on a dam picnic. The Kurashiki dam is located just outside Kadena and is beautifully green. We set up our picnic mat and settled in for a delicious lunch. After lunch we took a constitutional around the park, watching the fish in the ponds and walking across a bridge which overlooked the dam. It was a busy weekend as always, but it will pale in comparison to next weekend.

Finally Friday

Well this week has been a killer, today my body is so tired I'm considering trying to get a massage at some point this weekend. Today was a run day and instead of running the blue line again we ran on a track where they were having a jog-a-thon for the special olympics. It was nice to run for a great cause. I was really proud to do a little to support such a great organization. I was also touched by their motto which was printed on flags around the track. "Let me win, but if I cannot let me be brave in my attempt." I see how it's a great motto for the special olympics but really it's a great motto for life. It reminded me that it's not the win or loss that matters but how you played. The journey is far more important than the destination. I'm pleased with where I am in my journey and I'm thrilled that I've been allowed to be brave in what I've attempted. It's so easy to try to solicit help instead of accomplishing things yourself, but it seems more satisfying when I've done it myself.

Dr. Funkenstein

I waited until late to write my post today because I wanted to include something about Cardio Funk. This morning we did squats with 15 pound weights, it was brutal, not only did my arms hurt from holding the weights but my legs hurt from doing the squats. We did learn a little more about the importance of not being a victim, especially to ourselves. For example, when we call ourselves fat or we make comments about our figure before someone else does. Putting ourselves down is never acceptable. We are making progress and even though others can't see it we know it. We are working towards our goals and making gains, even if they are small they are gains.

Anyway this afternoon I took Rachel and Gabi with me to Cardio Funk. I was so excited because on Tuesday I gained mastery of the footwork and managed to stay on the step the entire class. So of course today I was all ready to rock. However I failed to realize that I can never get too comfortable with the class because it's constantly changing. And change it did, to me it felt harder than Tuesdays class, much harder. I was sweating in the first 15 minutes and by the time it was over my whole shirt was soaked. But I managed to keep up with the moves and stay on the step. Today was harder and I still did it. Yeah for small steps in the right direction.

Pina Coladas and running in the rain

Today was a run day and mother nature felt like we needed a little cooling off so she sent some refreshing rain. However since we ran a new route lovingly referred to as the blue line, because we follow a blue line painted on the ground, the run was called due to inclement weather. I managed to run around the blue line route a little over 1 lap before turning around and heading back to the starting point. Then the whole class went to the Kadena gym. It was my first time there and it's huge with a delicious juice bar that probably serves Pina Coladas. Our class went up to the cardio room which has 6 TV's showing a variety of programs, all the machines have a cool little place to plug in your headphones so you can hear the TV program you are watching. We got to pick the machine we used for the remaining 30 minutes of our cardio workout. I rode the bike and read the subtitles on Conan while getting to know a fellow boot camper. I managed to ride 6 miles on the bike in a little over 30 minutes. All and all I say it was a good work out with only minimal weather exposure. Later today I'm going to try Zumba.

Stepping Up

Ok double post today because I did double the exercise. I went to Cardio Funk this afternoon as I sometimes do. Only today I told myself that I was going to try to stay on the step the whole time and I did. I managed to make it through the full 45 minutes of class doing almost all the moves on the step. Usually I make it about 30 minutes before I completely break down and can't get myself up onto the step. Today it was no problem, well I should say that I managed to power through the problems. It hurt, it was hard, and I didn't get all the moves but I stayed on that step. I'm so proud of myself, I was able to make a goal for myself and achieve it even though I wasn't sure I could physically do it. I suppose my next step will be to add another level to my step, but not until next week I want to celebrate my accomplishment and try to repeat it at the other 2 classes this week.

By the way on a totally embarrassing note I accomplished this feat while wearing my exercise pants backwards. I didn't realize it until class was about to start so I didn't have a chance to fix them. I'm pretty sure no one noticed but I knew and it kind of made me laugh.

No Light Mayo--Ever!!

Today was the first day of this week's boot camp, it's important to note that today is Tuesday. We all got an extra day off for Columbus day. However with the extra day to the weekend means an extra day to cheat on our diet. Today we paid for those indiscretions with arm exercises. As I write this I feel my left hand going numb and that my arm as a whole is not acting normally. I hope it will pass before I have to open anything, because at this point I would not be able to open anything with a twist top. The work out today started with 800 crunches then moved on to some triceps workouts. I don't know how many we did of those because I was too concerned with not dropping the weights into my face. As we worked our arms he read through a few journals, then he channeled his inner Joan Crawford and told us no Light Mayo or brownies. I give props to people for being vigorously honest in their journals. Although now that the whole class paid for the light mayo and brownies eaten by someone else, I'm all for deception. We did learn that we will be able to have brownies again, just not now. When we get to the maintenance stage we can have the occasional treat. This boot camp is about learning to live a healthy lifestyle to adopt better eating and exercise habits. I'm looking forward to getting to the maintenance phase, but if I have a brownie before then I will not feel guilt or shame about it I'll just work out a little extra to burn it off. Food will never make me feel guilty again.

Monkey Park

Greg had today off both because he worked all weekend and it's Columbus day. We decided to go check out a park in Nago. Its called Neo Park and it's really more zoo than park. We bought a ticket that included admission to the park and a train ride. As you enter the park you buy a small blue packet of food for the birds, because this park is very hands on. The moment you walk in through the entrance you see that the birds, in this case cranes and ibis' are just wandering around enjoying all the food being tossed out by the kids. There are no cages per se, the animals just wander around and the people just toss out the food never worrying about being bitten by anything. There were even monkeys climbing the trees eating bananas that people had brought to feed them. The monkeys didn't really seem all that interested in the bananas so it reasons that people must bring quite a bit of food for them since they were pretty choosy. The next section of the park allowed us to walk through a tunnel with took us through part of a lake, the fish swam by in relatively murky water. Next we came upon the petting zoo, which is like no petting zoo I've ever seen. Firstly, there were a lot of tiny dogs running around which you could feed for 200 Yen, you could also feed bunnies, a huge tortoise which we were also encouraged to ride, some capybaras and llamas. We of course purchased the food and fed all the animals. Gabriella stood next to the giant tortoise but had no real desire to ride it. As we wandered through the rest of the park we saw lemurs, more birds and some giant fish. Our day ended with a train ride which took us around the whole park and gave us a lovely narrative in Japanese. The animals all seemed well cared for and healthy. The park itself had some interesting signage and carefully constructed paths for walking. It was an interesting place to visit, we'd never see anything like it in the states because the insurance costs would be astronomical.

Hail the Conquering Hero

This morning we ran up a hill, a hill that I've never actually run up in the 7 weeks I've been running at this park. It's a different hill than the one I ran up Wednesday, it's longer and steeper. I ran up it 12 times, an accomplishment that I feel embodies the accomplishments I've made throughout the past 6 months. Even before I started boot camp I gave up bad habits, crutches that seemed to be holding me back from the person I wanted to be. Doing boot camp is a way to create new healthier habits to replace the old not so healthy ones. In the past 7 weeks I've looked at small accomplishments like sitting up without using my hands as steps on a ladder to a better me. Today however feels like I've conquered something bigger. This hill symbolized me holding myself back, I never ran up it because I assumed I couldn't, yet today I did not once or twice but 12 times. The body is an amazing thing, it can do things even though the mind tells it that they are impossible. I'm on the road to a better me, to possibly finding the person I've always truly wanted to be, the person that I can look at in the mirror and love no matter what and no hill big or small will stand in my way.

Circus of a Circuit

Yesterday we did circuit training and I learned why you should never be the bearer of news. Lets discuss the latter part of that sentence. My dear friends both missed the 5 am boot camp class for various reasons, and I was asked to let John know. I did and he looked at me like I'd grown a second head and just opened my own gym next door. He called me 2000 for the rest of the class because one of my friends who will remain nameless said she'd do 2000 push ups as punishment for missing class. John said 2000 push ups wouldn't even begin to cover the amount of work I was going to be doing. He was right. I worked out for 3 people instead of just one, each different task was brutal and the fact that he pushed me on each one made me work harder. We also got our first look at the weight room, which of course contains weights and machines that cause pain. I think I may refer to it know as the torture room from now on because that's what it is to me. I did find out I can push 70 pounds worth of weight, which was a little surprising. All and all yesterday was a hard work out, but I'm glad I went at my assigned time because I know my friends probably got beat up at the 9:30 class.

The Hill is not my master

There are few things that require mastery in running, yet running as a whole is almost an art. You need to master your stride, your posture, your breathing and possibly a few more things. That being said I'm starting to get mastery over those things, however certain parts of the course we run have mastery over me, meaning that I have a complete breakdown of my skills when I get to them. They are the hills, there are two pretty serious hills, one that is hardest for me is the very first hill, it's not as steep as the second one or as long yet I consistently face it and climb as if it's Mount Everest. So yesterday when we did our run I wanted to master it, I wanted to conquer what ever was holding me back. I made a commitment to run up the hill at least two times. My first trip up the hill I walked because I was fiddling around with my ipod, the second time I walked because after drinking water the hill was making me a bit nauseous and the third time I kind of half tried to run it. But finally it was the end of the run 10 minutes left, I only had time for a short lap around the stadium, it was now or never to reach my goal. So I sprinted up the hill, I made it to the top huffing and puffing and fairly certain that death was probably eminent. But I turned right back around and walked down the hill and did it again. The second time didn't seem so painful, it didn't seem as hard as the first, the hill no longer took on a tunnel visioned endless hallway. It was just a hill and I ran up it twice.

Week 8: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

This week started out with me missing Monday's boot camp because I was sick. I think it was the right decision because I would have thrown up all over John's studio. I spent the day in bed and felt much better when Tuesday rolled around. Although I must say it was doubly hard to get up on Tuesday morning. As we drove to boot camp I couldn't help but wonder what new torture we'd be doing this week. The new torture involves laying on our stomachs moving weights out and in. It's to strengthen our arms and shoulders, and believe me that it what hurt for the rest of the day. After we'd warmed up we had an obstacle course race. We had to do a push up then walk our hands over a very high step (the kind used for step aerobics) then do another push up and climb to the next one, once we'd finished crossing over the steps we had to crab walk to the end of the room. Did I mention it was a race? So we had to do it three times to start and we were off to the races. I was the last to finish on my team barely edging out the other teams last person. It was nice to win for my team, there was a threatened penalty for loosing but we never found out what it was because we had to start all over again. We did the course for a while then got a short lecture. Needless to say I was sore yesterday.

Hawaiian Weekend

This weekend was marked by Gabriella's first public Hula performances. She and her Hula group performed at the opening of the brand new Kadena BX. She did a wonderful job and of course had a ball doing it. Her age group performed 3 songs, 2 of which I'd seen before and a new one which I'll post as the video. After each performance we took the opportunity to peruse the new exchange. Gabriella got a new toy and so did I. Actually I got a few new kitchen accessories which I need to make room for in my ever expanding kitchen. Greg was in Hawaii during both performances and he was disappointed that he missed them. We are hopeful that he will be able to see her perform one of these days. Alright I'm sorry to say that the video is not uploading so I'm just going to put in a picture of her doing her thing. I'll continue to try to upload, but the file might be too big.

Run Gabi Run

Since Greg is in Hawaii I wasn't able to go to my normal boot camp class. I ended up going at 6 pm, and because of a babysitting snafu I had a running partner. That's right, I took Gabi with me. I must say that John was less than pleased to see her. After assuring him that she would be fine running he just shrugged. Gabi was a superstar, the first lap of the long route (about 1.5 miles) she never stopped running even making detours up and down the hills. She asked how many laps we were going to do and I told her we would do 3 laps. Her response was to smile and speed up. Gabi and I reached the stairs at the starting point and we both sipped on our water. When I asked if she was ready to go she merely stood up and started running. We made it around the second lap and were stopped by John who asked how Gabi was holding up and told us to run the short route on the next lap. The short route is just around the stadium about 1300 meters according to the signage. We made it twice around the short route before finally calling it a day. Gabriella ran for the full hour, although we walked up the hills (which I almost always do). I would guess that she ran about 4.5 miles without complaint, faster than I did. I am so proud of her and I know she really impressed John. She's a lean mean running machine.

Better Late than Never

This post is late because my day was packed with activity. Firstly I feel I should mention that Greg has left the island. He's on a transport to Hawaii with a critically sick kid, he will return on Sunday. Boot camp this morning consisted of 1000 crunches and a lecture. I was completely ready for an intense workout and when we didn't really get that I feel like my whole day was off. I guess if I'm not in terrible pain I'm not happy. The lecture was great, it translated not only to fitness but also to life. John talked about the 3 key steps to success and the importance of trying your best. The lecture was really about building mastery, whether it's workouts or child rearing or tying your shoe, if you want to master something you have to identify what you are doing wrong, find out why, and learn how to change that behavior through rigorous honesty and practice.

Today I didn't do my second work out because I wanted to get a little something for the child that Greg is transporting. Gabriella had already told me what I should get and so with little effort I made the purchases while she was at school. Since Greg is gone I won't be able to attend my normal boot camp class tomorrow, which is disappointing but not necessarily bad. This time I'm going to try the 6 pm class and hope for a nice breeze. I'm selecting that class because it's cooler and because I'll still be able to go to the opening of the new exchange on Kadena with Rachel and Angie. I'm so excited!!