The First Hurdle

My last post left off at New Years Eve. Over 20 days ago.

So, what has been my story from that spark of realization to today's aches and pains?

Well, I started looking at more videos on line. Lots of Belly Dancing tutorials.

Some were very helpful:



Some... not so much...



I mean, she is beautiful, camera man, but this isn't a fan video. Creeper. Lets try to keep the camera wide next time. Also, I want to give some love out to my bongo player. Get it, girl. :)

So... I looked up a lot of videos that way in the beginning and started working on my technique. One thing my technique was lacking was a defined separation of hip, waist, and chest. Now, don't get me wrong, I am very hour-glass figured, I just happen to be a rather thickened hour glass... more like a millenium glass, really. So, I needed to get some definition.

I am an imminently cheap person. I hate spending money. Ask anyone that knows me, it's my legacy. So, I make do with what I can get for the least amount of capital. So, my waist defining had to be done on a micro budget.

I started with a pretty simple plan: Move more than you eat, fatass!

Sure, everyone knows that it is a pretty simple idea that should be easy to follow, but I am not someone who can keep track of everything I consume and remember to wear my pedometer and write out calculations to convert the steps to calories. NO. Not in my lifetime.

What I did find was a really simple and fun App for my Windows 7 Phone. It's called Calorie Counter. It has every imaginable food on the planet broken down into Carbs, Calories, Protein, etc., etc., etc. So, you eat a banana for breakfast. Go to your app, type in banana and wham-o, it is counted into your calendar!

It keeps track of everything for you.

There is also a section that allows you keep track of what exercise you do in a day. It has everything from Shopping to Biking to Dancing to Horseback Riding to Housework and back again. Then you just pop in the amount of time you did it and TA DA! You can see the results.

So I had my free app to make sure I was eating right and moving enough. Now I just needed to get some different ways to move. For this I looked to my entertainment console. I had a Wii and an Xbox. Now, I am among those who think the Wii is one of the most expensive paper weights ever created. So, I used my wii for the Netflix feature and started doing Pilates.

For my Xbox I splurged. I looked at the cost of a gym membership for one year. It was around $600 for a good gym. Well, I had a year to become a professional, and that seemed like a pretty steep investment. Then I looked at the cost of the Xbox Kinect. $150. Not bad! Dance Central? $50. .... so for $200 (a huge saving over a one year gym membership) I purchased the Kinect with Dance Central.



Just from watching what I eat, doing pilates three times a week, and playing on my Kinect three times a week, I have so far lost 9 pounds. Not a huge amount of weight... but considering that it gets me nine pounds closer to my goal, I feel pretty good about it.

Sally