I went snowboarding again today. My legs were still a bit stiff from all the Irish Dancing on St. Patty’s (we performed on Concrete floors which gives me shin splints ;p) It was a pretty great day! There was some fresh powder from yesterday and it was mostly sunny so I got a little suntan, too.  I have had a love-hate relationship with snowboarding. I’m not especially good at it and one frustrating thing has been my weight. It is difficult to do up your bindings when touching your toes is hard and when you fall a lot it’s hard to push yourself back up. I have noticed a huge difference this year. Just the 20 pounds has made a world of difference in being able to comfortably strap my bindings. My arms are also much less sore. I’m getting better so I fall less which means getting up less often. Overall today was a pretty great day!

I hope you had luck today and didn’t get pinched. My day was full of irish dancing awesomeness and a dinner date with dad.

I also forgot to mention that I met one of my non-scale goals. It was to perform a hard (jig) shoe Irish Dance. I have been dancing a little over a year and have been working to be good enough to perform a hard shoe routine.   If you’re wondering what a hard shoe dance is, think Riverdance It’s loud and fast and a great workout (from the waist down!)

My next non-scale goals are:  Graduate with my M.Ed (May) , pass my NIC certification (I’ll get results in May) and fit into a size 10 (hopefully this summer sometime).  Another one of my goals is to learn to swim, but I’m not ready to commit to a timeline on that one yet.

It’s been one year since my “before” photo. Today was the 2008 St. Patrick’s parade and I forgot to have a picture taken for comparison ;p.

I’m not sure it would have mattered though since we were in different costumes (dresses) and my dress is too large so it doesn’t really show my figure. I enjoyed the parade, though. It was 30 minutes of skipping and dancing through crazy Irish (and wannabe Irish) folks. This was followed by a Siamsa (an Irish word for fun/entertainment) where we performed 4 dances. We also performed yesterday for a very receptive audience at a retirement home, after I’d spent a half day snowboarding My legs are very tired and grateful for the rest tomorrow before we perform 3 times on St. Patrick’s day. I know i’ve mentioned it before, but Irish dancing is the funnest and best form of exercise I’ve found for me.

I liked this post of Roni’s and thought I would respond on my own blog.

She posted: So how do you incorporate your favorites? Have you made substitutions? Do you still splurge but eat less? Inquiring minds want to know!”

One of the biggest things I do is substitute drinks. I used to drink a ton of milk (which is good for you, but has calories) and I love Root beer. I still have the occasional root beer (regular, I can’t stand diet), but usually I opt for water. When I go out I love places like Wendy’s and Subway because they have the lite lemonade which satisfies the crave for a sweet drink without calories. I also love the sugar-free cranberry drink from Wal-Mart. When I want milk, I always use my small cups from the cupboard. I still drink a lot of it, but much less than I used to.

Another swap - wheat bread. I never buy white anymore and I don’t miss it.

I am sure there are more, but these have been the big ones for me.

0 - the amount of weight I have lost since the New Year

0 - the amount of weight I have gained since the New Year

6 - the number of hours I snowboarded yesterday - my knees are killing me

2 - the number of hours I irish danced this morning - my calves are aching too (but in a good way)

8 - the number of weeks left in this semester until I graduate and finish my 1 year teaching contract - the time I can finally breathe again

3 - the number of days I journaled this week

7 - the number of days I will journal next week

Happy Saturday Everyone.