Massala of Things

It's Friday!!! I’ve been sleeping very well this week. I attribute part of this to my secret weapon: EXERCISE! I forget about how great I sleep when I exercise often during the week.

Let’s talk holiday parties. So far we have around 5 for the season. With three down and two to go I’m feeling good. Yesterday I really had to force myself to get a tangerine in before going to a party luncheon. I knew they were going to have food there but I dare not arrive starving. Me and my boy do not like to eat a lot in one seating.

This pregnancy has been a blessing because of God did for me in order to help me prepare. I am finally feeling the growth in my belly. I feel it more when I go to sleep and of course, the way it looks. From here til labor day (LOL) it’s going to get bigger and bigger. I never had a flat stomach, so the size does not bother me. The fact that I’m not in my slimmest days do not bother me #1 because I’m healthy and pregnant; #2 because in my fattest days I was WAY bigger than this. Now how impressive is that?

We have a huge mirror in our bedroom so I can’t help but look at this pregnant body every day in all its glory. I look at myself with amazement and awe. I can’t help but think of God’s creation growing inside of me, I’m just an instrument to protect and nurture for a season. Of course I will do the same once my son is born but he will be doing things on his own.

My baby has always moved a lot, I’m the one who’s catching up on feeling it. I’m starting to feel it more but nothing constant or predictable. He always moves a lot during our ultrasounds. The first thing he did when we got there earlier this week was to open and close his mouth, that was cute.

Oh, we also have two weddings to attend this season. My hope was to fit in one of the dresses I bought for the summer wedding we attended but I haven’t tried it on. If I have to buy an outfit, good for me. I’ll probably buy at least one that is not so party like I can wear it to another nice outing. We’ll see.

Talking about parties, my birthday is coming up. Yeah, once a year it always happens. It’s funny to hear that 1980 was almost 30 years ago but I don’t feel that way. I still feel in the spring of life, age is really just a number. I guess my focus lately have been: make sure that you live an abundant life, no matter how young you are.

{1} Go to the gym at least 4 times (0 out of 4 to go!);
{2} Snack before going to 5 holiday parties this season;
{3} Drink at least 32 oz of H2O per day;
{4} Treat myself to a mani or/and pedi;

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TGIF

So, Friday is finally here! It seems like I’ve been waiting for this day a-l-l w-e-e-k long! I worked a lot. We ate homemade meals for lunch and dinner. I exercised in and out of the gym. I’m still planning on taking a rest day this week. After my baking fiasco last Sunday I’m not very inspired to bake or create anything new. The home remodeling allows me to do only so much but I know that if I keep cooking we’ll keep one of the normal things that make our family life enjoyable. Can you believe the 4th of July is next week? I can’t. Last year I was eating meat and we had the best bbq party ever at our house. We hosted two other couples from church. We ate well (Zeke’s a gifted cook) and we watched fireworks by the lake at night. It was an enjoyable time. This year we don’t have big plans like last year. I want to enjoy being with family, rest and get ready for our vacation. Sometimes you get so tired from all of the holiday cooking and hustling that you can’t enjoy the people. I’m slowly but surely learning to do both, entertain and enjoy those whom I am entertaining. So, we have yet another great American holiday. This joyous occasion doesn’t need to add pounds in the scale. I decided to bring my own vegetarian sausages or burgers with me when I go to a get together. I’ve done it once in my own home and it went pretty well. I don’t know if you remember but I told you last week or so that I was weighing myself every day and that wasn’t good for me. I stopped that and I can see a great difference in myself: I’m not anxious. I can live one day at a time, eat one meal at a time, forgive myself when I make mistakes and trust God that I will be stronger after I learn from my mistakes. Enough rambling for the week. Enjoy your weekend!

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Happy Friday

Happy Friday. How was your week? My week was very productive I must say and I'm glad it's Friday. I told you I took spin cycle on Monday and I took Body Blasters on Wednesday. It was a serious workout! I'm sore but I'm happy. I've been exercising every since and the only way you get less sore is exercising more. I'm still trying to find a paralel with life :) The body blasters class was a challenge. I plan on going back and making my body yield to the workouts. My body doesn't feel like doing a lot but I tell my body what to do and not the opposite. I believe it's important to listen to your body but sometimes you body just wants to be lazy. Lazy won't get me fit. I'm looking foward to a fun weekend. Hope you have one too.

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Looking Back

Pounds and pounds ago I can see that…

My journey has not been… Predictable. It’s ever changing. There was not a magical formula involved. I ate all kinds of good things. I went to all kinds of parties. I exercised most days.
I had seconds some times. There was room for dessert though I skipped desserts most of the time.

My journey has not been… Boring. It’s been exciting to learn new things. I have a pool of knowledge about the way my body works and what’s good for it.

My journey has not been… Lonely. Tough I’m the one who took the first step, I have found some support (not crutches) along the way. I haven’t seen a lot of cheerleaders on the side of the road. Most people have their backs turned or they are waiting for me to join them. Thus my theory on paying for support if you don’t have a lot of support around you. This was the main stretch I’ve had to go through. Learning that this journey is individual, no matter what your marital status is. 99.9 percent of the determination needs to come from the one trying to change. I learned that to depend on others is to rely on remote chances of transformation.

My journey has not been… Perfect. I’ve made tons of mistakes. I’ve learned from them. I consider myself making less mistakes now. There will be more mistakes to be made. There will be more lessons to learn.

My journey has been worth it.

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The Gym Smile

This week went by quickly! It was a success when it came to weight management. I went to the gym daily. The most difficult thing was to make the decision to work out yesterday. I felt burned out. I didn’t walk at work so I had to workout at the gym.

My mind was racing: “Should I work out or should I go home and rest? I deserve rest! It’s almost Friday and I worked a lot this week! Other than that, I woke up early. Maybe I should let household chores count as exercise.”

The most intense fights I experience in my journey happen when my body and mind are tired. Thursday was one of those days.

I made the decision to listen to reason. I dragged myself to the gym and I decided I was going to dedicate one hour to exercising in the elliptical machine. I felt like stopping at 30 minutes (really, I felt like stopping at 10 minutes) but I tricked myself to going til the end. How? I had 2 more chapters to read on “Love is a Decision.” I calculated it takes me around one hour to read two chapters on that book. On top of that, the book indeed gets more interesting in the end so reading helped with my focus. Watching TV usually makes me more tired so I didn’t even take my headphones with me.

It was hard but I went to the gym. I learned that sometimes I just have to listen to reason. Sometimes I just have to persist and go anyway. I’m interested in the full rewards that come to those who overcome complacency and master the art of listening to reason over feelings – when it comes to exercise.

I got into an interesting, short conversation yesterday in the gym. There’s this woman who works out extremely hard every time I see her. The funny thing is that she is always smiling. I asked her, ‘how come you always have a smile on your face when you workout?’ She said, ‘Music. I dread coming here, especially after a whole day of work so I listen to music while I work out.’

So, I’m not alone. Even someone who constantly carries a smile on their face have to reach to reason in order to make herself go to the gym and stay there. Interesting.

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Vida

4Permanecei em mim, e eu permanecerei em vós; como a vara de si mesma não pode dar fruto, se não permanecer na videira, assim também vós, se não permanecerdes em mim.
5Eu sou a videira; vós sois as varas. Quem permanece em mim e eu nele, esse dá muito fruto; porque sem mim nada podeis fazer.
6Quem não permanece em mim é lançado fora, como a vara, e seca; tais varas são recolhidas, lançadas no fogo e queimadas.
7Se vós permanecerdes em mim, e as minhas palavras permanecerem em vós, pedi o que quiserdes, e vos será feito.
8Nisto é glorificado meu Pai, que deis muito fruto; e assim sereis meus discípulos.
9Como o Pai me amou, assim também eu vos amei; permanecei no meu amor.
10Se guardardes os meus mandamentos, permanecereis no meu amor; do mesmo modo que eu tenho guardado os mandamentos de meu Pai, e permaneço no seu amor.
11Estas coisas vos tenho dito, para que o meu gozo permaneça em vós, e o vosso gozo seja completo. Joao 15:4-11

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Who am I?

I don’t really know what to write about this morning. Sometimes that happens at the end of the week. In order to spare you from reading something boring, I found a cool poem:

I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest asset or your heaviest burden.
I will push you up to success or down to disappointment.
I am at your command.
Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me.
For I can do them quickly, correctly and profitably.
I am easily managed, just be firm with me.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine though I work with the precision of a machine and the intelligence of a person.
You can run me for profit or you can run me for ruin.
Show me how you want it done.
Educate me.
Train me.
Lead me.
Reward me.
And I will then...do it automatically.
I am your servant.
Who am I?
I am a Habit.
Author Unknown

Exercise can be a habit. Yesterday I did not feel like going to the gym. I was really tired, my stomach wasn't enjoying the snack I had before going to the gym either. Because exercise is a habit I went and I felt incredibly better after I left. I walked out of that gym as a different person, thank God! Habits definately can be used for our good. Be determined to use exercise and other healthy habits to your advantage! P.S.: I love Richard Simmons. He's Mr. Motivation and he's funny!

I know my blog does not allow comments so I decided to take occasional polls. You can vote for the first one now. It’s about the number of diets we’ve experimented with. I plan on sharing the results along with my thoughts on the subject next week. Have an awesome weekend and thanks for reading Simply Cintia.

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Dicas pra Mulher Ocupada

Bom fds pra todos/as! Estou entrando em um tempo bem ocupado (no trabalho) pra mim e vai ser ótimo se Deus quiser. Minha nutricionista me deu umas dicas boas pra eu continuar saudável:

*Lembre-se de usar sapatos confortáveis – Eu trabalho perto de um lugar ótimo pra caminhar e andando pra cima e pra baixo faço um pouco de exercísio e continuo confortável.
*Tire uma folga pra vc durante o dia – Pelo menos uma hora pra caminhar, descansar, etc. Essa também é uma folga mental ;)
* Quem vai fazer as compras? - Se você tem que fazer as compras além de trabalhar, que tal simplificar a sua vida? Use a mesma lista até que vc fique menos ocupada. Simplificar a vida ajuda a manter a paz.
* Lembre-se de continuar planejando as refeições - Hoje eu trouxe frutas, iogurte e meu almoço pro trabalho. Também planejei as vezes que vou ter que comer na rua.

Vamos continuar preservando a nossa saúde, não importa o quanto a gente tem que trabalhar! Com carinho, Simply Cintia

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Quote of the day

"It is not normal to be absolutely perfect when you're on a weight loss diet. It's no different than how we human beings are in any other part of our lives. No one is perfect. It's just not human.

There is a range of behavior, however. Those of us who are able to diet successfully make mistakes - yes - but then we learn from our mistakes, so ultimately we make fewer mistakes. That's the real diet tip here." More from Maria's Last Diet

Have an awesome weekend. I'm gonna strive to make fewer mistakes and better than that, LEARN from the mistakes I make. Starting with going out right now to get some exercise before a weekend of parties - friend's baby shower and super bowl. My personal goals? 1. Go for walks today, tomorrow and Sunday; 2. Eat fruit, cheese and crackers + tea at the baby shower. Oh, make sure that's a snack and I save calories for that. 3. Enjoy my weekend and REST!

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Alright

Depois de algumas semanas boas e mas, eu me sinto muito bem. Quando eu como em casa eu sinto que a RA esta sobre controle. Essa primeira semana na academia esta sendo otima. Uma coisa que eu descobri ontem foi que eu fico de saco cheio se eu fizer os mesmos exercicios dia apos dia. Por exemplo, eu tenho feito a mesma coisa na academia por 3 dias e preciso de uma mudanca. Eu nao tive tempo de ir a nenhuma aula desde quarta-feira, entao eu estou malhando qdo posso. Hoje eu tive todas as intencoes de ir na aula boot camp mas eu simplismente nao consegui acordar – que foi bom porque orei e li um livro sobre a oracao. Esse final-de-semana vai ser otimo e bem divertido. Eu oro pra que vc tenha um otimo final-de-semana tambem. Quando vc pensa negativamente e fala negativamente sobre o seu final-de-semana (tipo falando que a sua RA sempre e ruim no final-de-semana por exemplo) vc esta dando poder ao final-de-semana, poder que pretence a vc. Voce tem controle sobre as suas acoes e vc nao e que vc pesa! Tenha um final-de-semana positivo!

After a couple of ups and down weeks I feel confident about this week. Eating mostly at home gives me sense of control of my weight management. Going to the gym has been great. One thing I found out today is that I get BORED if I do the same thing over and over. For example, I’ve been doing the same thing for 3 days in a roll and I’m ready for a change. I haven’t taken any classes this week so I’ve been doing my own thing. Today I had all the intentions of going to Boot Camp but I simply didn’t hear the alarm clock – which was good, I had time to pray and read a book about prayer. This weekend will be a fun one. I still have lots of work to do today – that’s why I got the work out of the way when I did leave the house – but tomorrow will be a great fun day. I pray that you have a great weekend. Don’t give your weekend more power than it deserves by thinking negatively and saying that you always mess up. You have control over your actions and you are not what you weight!

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TGIF

Gracas a Deus e Sexta-feira (Thank God is Friday!)! Aqui o povo fala isso toda sexta :) Minha semana foi uma bencao. Apesar dos desafios que a vida oferece Deus me oferece o amor e o cuidado Dele todos os dias. As misericoridas do Senhor se renovam TODO o dia! Gracas a Deus por uma nova chance!

Queria compartilhar uma alegria: na Quarta eu mudei de plano alimentar pra piramide alimentar e tem sido dificil. As quantidades sao diferentes, o plano nao e tao simples como o plano de escolhas simples que eu tinha. Ontem eu acho que comi proteinas demais (frango) e me senti tao mal e pesada... Em vez de ficar jururu sentada em casa pensei em sair pra caminhar. Meu marido me incentivou bastante e depois de 5 minutos de caminhada comecei a me sentir tao bem. 58 minutos depois estava de volta ao lar e muito mais feliz.

Comecei esse blog dizendo que as misericordias de Deus se renovam todo o dia porque eu preciso de misericordias todos os dias!

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