Laid off, not laid up

Yesterday, my life buffet ran out of something it had been serving for a while: work.  I walked into the office, armed with my recently renewed mojo, determined to make the best of a situation that I had been unhappy with for quite some time.  I wasn't going to let it get to me that our 65 year old receptionist had been giving me the silent treatment/death-stare combo for over a month.  I was going to put my head down and make some money.

I got set up, opened all of the tools that I needed, and before I had a chance to fill my waterbottle -its important to stay hydrated! - my boss asks me to meet with him and our hr girl, who had just moved here from San Francisco the day before.  We'd been having some issues in the office, even beyond the obvious morale problem, so I assumed they were having a chat with each of us to see how we could finally change things....wrong.

Long story short, they've "decided to go a different direction" and other vague statements that don't mean much, or offer any closure.  The receptionist was gone before I even arrived that morning, and apparently there are more layoffs to come.  So with a wipe of a tear (out of fear of what's to come more than anything) and a handshake, I was sent off with a month's severance.

The great thing about a buffet, is that usually when something runs out, it gets replaced.  Until it does, you can either wait with an empty plate, or try something different.  so I have decided to seize this opportunity!  I am empowering myself to do something each day that I wouldn't have otherwise done - either because I didn't have time, or just had too many excuses!

Yesterday, within a few hours of being laid off, I went to the gym for a killer arms & abs workout, scrubbed the bathroom top to bottom, folded that pile of clothes that had been on the bedroom floor for a while, reorganized my dresser drawers, did two loads of laundry, took my dog for a nice long walk....I just plain got things done!

Today, I let myself sleep in; not too late, just until 9:00.  I had a nice long shower, and set to work organizing my closet, and getting together a donations bag, full of things I no longer wear.  Very quickly,that task turned into a game of dress-up!  I tried on my Prom dress!  Then my grade 8 graduation dress!  It was silly, sure, but it was also in a strange way therapeutic.

My mood is already better, and I feel more like myself.  Of course, I'm worried about what's next, but I know that sooner or later (hopefully sooner), someone will fill up the empty dish in the buffet.

Maybe someone out there is just trying to tell me I had too much on my plate?

12-week wonder(ful)

Did I post regular updates? No.  Did I track EVERYTHING? Totally.

I ended up changing things more than my original "I'm-going-to-follow-this-thing-to-the-letter" mentality would have allowed...but my boyfriend and I booked a vacation, and I wanted to skip ahead to the "cutting" phase early, so that my body would at least look bikini-ready, if not sun-ready.

My final plan looked like this: Weeks 1-7 (by the book), skip ahead to weeks 10-12 and CARB CYCLE.  Since I felt that I had a decent muscle foundation going into my fast-tracked week 10, I was confident that by carb cycling I would get most of the look that I wanted without suffering too much muscle loss.

Long story short, here's how I looked at the end of 9 weeks, before a full week of vacation:

Next up: setting new goals, and fine-tuning my plans.  The second weekend of June, FMIevents are hosting a Fitness Industry seminar for newbies to their world, and you can register for JUST the seminars, or you can add a photoshoot with one of their 4 featured, internationally published photographers.  11weeks out to prep for a fitness photo shoot?  That sounds like a lofty goal, but it would certainly help keep me on track!

To be continued....