Posted by bassgiraffe in fitness, health, Kitchener Waterloo | 0 Comments
Spin12 for St. Mary’s Cardiac Care- Please support
ABOUT-
“The goals of Spin12 are two fold; number one is to raise money for a great local charity, St. Mary’s Regional Cardiac Care Centre. Goal number two is to raise money to help world-class, Ontario based athletes with their training expenses.
–In addition, Ontario athlete funding will be derived from portions of each team’s entry fee. These athletes will be identified by local training organizations to a special committee, and will have the potential to compete at a National or World Class level.
SpinALIVE hopes that our efforts through Spin12 will help to enhance world-class cardiac services in Waterloo Region and beyond, and help local athletes one day realize their competitive dreams.”
MY GOAL-
Join me as I pedal towards a healthier future for myself and my community!
This event means a lot to me on many levels. First one is 6 years ago my dad had quadruple by-pass surgery and even though he didn’t have surgery at St Mary’s I support the fact they have an amazing cardiac centre. Second this is a way to show my blog readers and family/friends how dedicated I am to being healthy and the depths I’ll go to work on my health(1 hour spin class is no joke). And Third one of my goals this year is to support local charities as much as I can. Thank you for your support.
I hope to raise at least $400 towards this event and for St Mary’s. You can click HERE to reach my fundraising page. Thank you all for your support.
Here is a photo of my cool daddy, I call him Pa. I’m thankful everyday that he is still here with us. Love you Pa. I’m doing this for you and others like you.
Posted by bassgiraffe in fitness, health | 0 Comments
Mindie From Bacon Time’s Weight Loss Transformation Inside and Out
I want to share with my readers inspirational stories of people’s weight loss journeys. I’m hoping these stories will inspire you to continue to work hard and never give up.
THANK YOU Mindie for sharing your story!!
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Mindie From Bacon Time’s Weight Loss Transformation Inside and Out
Hi everyone, it’s me Mindie May Hilton, happy to be guest posting here today.
Gasp…cringe…gulp…oh boy, here it is, an old pic of me, before my weight loss! I still can’t believe I am sharing this pic, since it’s still hard for me to look at the "old me". Today I am sharing my own personal struggles, in hopes of helping others along the way. I call this pic the "old me" even though I was obviously younger 8 years ago, but let’s not do the math 
Today I am finding the courage to share this dreaded pic, in hopes of bringing encouragement and words of advice to those making a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. I think my story will surprise you. You may be surprised to hear, I sometimes get hate mail, from folks thinking that I eat bacon all day. You see I am the blogger of Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo. Trust me it’s not all bacon, and far from it. I share weekly posts on crafts, fashion, giveaways, recipes (indulgent and healthy), reviews, and have a weekly Anything Goes Friday to Monday Linky. One person (someone who obviously doesn’t follow my blog) wished me a "heart attack". I don’t let it get me down, at least I do my best not to, because I know if they read and followed my blog, they would know it’s not all bacon, and I don’t live an unhealthy lifestyle.
I am not a doctor nor expert on weight loss, but I have certainly found things that work for me.
I was younger, but I didn’t feel or look it. I wasn’t happy with myself, my weight was a heavy burden on me both physically and emotionally. I had struggled with my weight since childhood, and it got out of control while in college. I was watching what I ate, working out daily, and yet I kept gaining weight while in school. I think the stress of overloading on classes and working full time too, really affected the way my body functioned. Studies now are showing that stress can affect how many calories our bodies burn. Then while driving one day, a man pulled out in front of me, running a red light, and I hit him going approximately 55 to 60 mph. Luckily no one was killed, my truck was totalled, and unfortunately I was left with chronic pain in my neck and back. This didn’t aid my battle with weight loss. After graduating college, getting married, and having my first child, I still struggled with weight. Again I was working approximately 65 hours a week, and I believe the stress was my worst enemy. Restricting calories and working out seemed to have no effect on my weight. Finally one day I gave up. I told myself that I would continue to try and make healthy food choices and stay active, but I wasn’t going to beat myself up over my weight anymore. I was simply going to do my best to be healthy regardless of that number on the scales.
So as crazy as it sounds, I quit going to the gym, and started working out at home using exercise videos. I also started taking long walks once or twice a day. I was never comfortable working out at the gym, while heavy, so it made sense in my battle to relax and avoid stress, to simply work out at home. Guess what, it worked, I started losing weight. I think in the past working out always seemed stressful, so my body never reaped the full benefits. Now that I had focused on making my workouts an enjoying time, a peaceful time for me to be alone with my thoughts, I was seeing real results. I didn’t lose the weight over night, but over approximately a year and a half I reached my goal weight. During that time, we went to a single car family, so that I could afford to work fewer hours outside of the home, reducing my stress load a bit more. I would keep a food journal to keep me on track, watching my total calories and sodium. In other posts I have talked about how important I feel a lower sodium diet can be.
The weight loss transformation really did affect me inside and out. Besides physically feeling comfortable in my own skin, I felt free to be the happy person I always knew I could be. As time went on, I found I was not only able to maintain my weight, but eat more. I know again, that must sound crazy, but I truly believe I reset my metabolism by reducing my stress and enjoying my peaceful power walks each day. It is true when
I say I eat more now then when I was approximately 100 pounds (gasp) heavier. Since being diagnosed about a year and a half ago with hypoglycemia (hence the "hungry hypo") my appetite is always great. With continued workouts and frequent meals, my hypoglycemia has been little problem for me, besides always feeling hungry, that sort of sucks. Both my parents are diabetic, but I am hopeful I won’t develop it through a balanced lifestyle.
So my words of advice to those trying to lose weight, simply be happy. Find a workout routine that you find fulfilling. If you enjoy going to the gym, then do it. I personally prefer getting outdoors and speed walking. The fresh air, relaxes me, and makes my workout not only enjoyable but more beneficial. With your diet, make changes that you can stick with. If you reduce your calories to less then 800 a day, you may lose weight, but over all I really believe you will only hurt yourself in the end, by stunting your metabolism. Then when you eat more, you gain weight, and will have the dreaded yo-yo effect that so many people battle. For more weight loss tips that I have found work for me you can read my advice post here.
In the mean time, I hope you found my story and advice helpful. If you need someone to talk to for some encouragement, I am just a click away. If you stumble with your battle to lose weight, or have a bad day, don’t beat yourself up. We are all only human, and no one is perfect. Forget unhappy moments from the past, and start today with a smile. One more thing, besides encouragement from me, whoever you do or don’t prey to, ask them for help. I know I don’t talk about religion on my blog, but it is true I asked God for help on my journey to a healthier me. We often ask God to give us strength in so many endeavors in life, why not lean on him now.
Feel free to visit or contact me at Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo, via email at mindiehilton@gmail.com, or at my Etsy shop TLC Creations.
Read MorePosted by bassgiraffe in fitness, health | 4 Comments
The Push-up Challenge!
This morning one of my friends posted this on her facebook page. I LOVED the idea a lot and thought I’d take up the challenge. I posted it on both my personal page and my bassgiraffe’s Thoughts page. I told people they could click “like” on both and it will count twice. I combined the “likes” on both pages and it ended up being 57 push-ups. Part of my promise was that I would video tape it. I had no clue how many I’d get and I wasn’t sure if I’d do them “girly” style or regular or a combo of both. In the end I decided to do girly style.
Thank you all for your support, this was a fun challenge.
So, we didn’t know the camera cut out after 5 push-ups, but after we finally noticed we recorded on a different camera the rest. My arms are like rubber and in the end I didn’t do my push-ups very pretty, but I did them. I even had my friend Matt here to keep me accountable. I wish we would have seen the video cut out because I was pretty funny around #30 and on. Oh well. Maybe I’ll do this challenge again sometime. In fact let’s plan it now. I will post the above photo again on Feb 26th and try to do better. I’m starting a new workout program this coming month and I hope to be stronger with it.
P.S. I hate the angle of the video when I’m talking, look at all my chins. boo…
Read MorePosted by bassgiraffe in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Follow Fridays 01/27
It’s FRIDAY!!! I love Fridays and meeting new blogs. Welcome new and old readers. Thank you all for visiting. Please leave me a message if you want me to follow back.
I ALWAYS follow back, I may not leave a message right away but I do follow back. Please leave me a comment if you want me to visit your blog. You can read more abut this here- http://www.bassgiraffe.com/2010/10/google-friend-connect.html
If you have a weekly blog hop or giveaway link-up you would like me to post please let me know. I make a weekly post of all the blog hops and giveaway link-ups going on and I would love to join yours and post about it.
I am providing this Friday list for everyone to look at, if you see a hop you’d like to join please do. I don’t have time to join all of them every week, but I try my best.
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While you’re here, if you like my blog please vote for me for the following (thank you so much):
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