Nayarit...along the free road coming back from our November trip

Nayarit...along the free road coming back from our November trip.

I added the photo above because it's so pretty. I had heard of the Nayarit Riviera before, but didn't understand until we drove thru. Nayarit is a small state on the western coast of Mexico. It is lush and green and beautiful. I think it would be a nice vacation spot- but we only drove thru on the way home from our trip down south.

I'm looking thru my photos and thinking about how I can add them to my blog without being in the past all the time. Mexico has so many faces, so many cultures, different lingo, right? For example the word for dragonfly, up here in Baja is Libelula (not sure of the spelling), but down in Guerrero near Acapulco, it's called Chambuleke. I know this because I love dragonflys and have a couple of dragonfly tattoos - most of the year I'm wearing short sleeves or no sleeves so they get seen, and often commented on ha ha. I do not have "tough guy" tattoos- skulls or things of that nature; rather I have dragonflys, flowers and peace signs. In fact one arm has the word "peace" in English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, and Thai. Different colors and different writing styles, and I have an earth with a peace sign in it. Hmmm I probly have pictures of that, too...but will have to wait until another day when I'm going thru my photos again.

So the English class is AWESOME!! I am so happy with it! Week #2 was just as exciting as week #1. I had less students; only 6 on Monday and 4 on Wednesday, but 2 or 3 students sent a msg with a student who came - one saying they had a sick kid, another was stuck at work. One thing I'm worried about is a family who came on Wednesday of the first week didn't return; the mom and dad and daughter were all students, but they had a small little boy who I said could be there but the class was for the adults. I think maybe I messed up by not being clear they could come and bring him- I mean he was quiet, coloring by himself, and the daughter was only about 9, but she was doing good and I was including her. But I don't know where they live or anything and they didn't show either nite this past week. I really really hope they come back! There are so few students, and the little ones are well behaved that I don't care if they are there. Don't get me wrong, a small class is good, and even when I only had 4, we had fun. In fact on Monday I had 2 students who wanted to learn Spanish!

They were young guys; probly early 20's who rode their bicycles from Wisconsin (I think-somewhere like that), to Baja! Crazy, right? They are staying with and working for the guy who is renting the building and he told them to come to class. One left for Puerto Penasco, Sonora on his bicycle on Wed so I only had the other one on Wed. What was really funny was the Spanish students started asking him to say the lessons in Spanish since they had to do it in English! ha ha. So I was sorta teaching both! I love students who want to learn- and these people want it! We worked on the vowels and how they have 2 sounds (long and short)- I had been thinking of how to present it and ended up printing drawings of things with the long and short vowels...like unicycle and sun, bacon and ham, etc. As I put them up I asked for the word in Spanish then in English...then we talked about them. The class drives itself. We laugh alot!

The zumba teacher, Carmina did not show up this week; she's the one with a sick kid. She teaches zumba at 8am Mon-Fri; last year when we first moved here I went to her class which at the time was at 5pm. It was December- it was cold, the class was outside, and it was on cement. After just 2 or 3 weeks I stopped going. Then I didn't exercise again until I started my commitment on April 1. Her class is the one that now I want to try and go to, maybe just on Tues and Thurs mornings for a few weeks' partly to learn some new steps for my own routine, and partly as an addition to my trying to shake it up a little; my modified eating plan and extra workouts to get off this plateau. 8am is early for me though, which is why I'm only thinking 2 morning a week, and on both those days right now I'm dancing for 30 min, then going to the "stretcher-size" class for an hour. The class is also on Fridays, but I just want to do the zumba twice a week. If I load myself up too much I'll hate it, it will become a hassle, and I start not wanting to do anything. I've been doing this for 10 months straight and it's working for me, so I'm just gonna take it in small chunks. Plus it costs money ha ha.

It only costs 20 pesos a class (which right now is less than $2 USD), but still, the other class is free and my dancing and gym is free. I've mentioned my workouts and change in eating a little here, but not too much. I didn't want my blog to be about weight loss. I've been keeping a journal by hand about it. I call it my commitment to myself. I did all of it alone until the week of Thanksgiving when I added the stretcher size class- it's kind of a class for seniors, I think I'm the youngest by a few years ha ha. That's why I dance for a half hour before I go and try to really push myself to keep my heartbeat up. The class is like 20 min of light cardio, 20 min of light weights and 20 min of floor work. The weights portion is using hand weights, and I started using just 1 pounders to stretch out my muscles since I do heavier weights on Mon and Wed. I was doing the heavier weights M-W-F, but I've been doing the class T-Th-F..... I made a year commitment to myself for exercise and to change my eating habits. I call it eating habits because if I say a diet- then I'm telling myself this is not a permanent change. And I want it to be a permanent change! No more ice cream every nite, no more sugar snacking. So I chose 2 days a week to be "official weigh" days and commited to journaling about it. I weigh on Tues and Friday. It should probly be just once a week, but ha ha I'm too obsessed for that. I write at least on those 2 days. I write about how I feel, how I've done exercise and food-wise. In the beginning I had to really pay attention carefully to my choices. Now it's much more of a habit, just the way I eat. I don't really crave too much crap...if I don't eat chocolate or sugary snacks, I don't crave them...but I swear I'm a junk food addict ha ha.

I tell this story in Alcoholics Anonymous that any time I think I could have just one drink, all I have to do is think about oreo cookies. Sorry if I already told it in my blog before but I'll tell it now. I have to buy oreo cookies in the small package- the one that just has 6 cookies in it, like you get a 7-11 or any quick stop store. The reason is I will eat them all. If I buy a regular size package - I will still eat all of them. Maybe I'll just eat 3 or 4 or even 6 today, maybe tomorrow the same. But by tomorrow nite I will be thinking about those cookies. I'll probly wake up during the nite thinking about those oreos sitting in my cupboard. By day 3, I will eat all of them. They might make me sick, but I will keep eating them, I can't help myself. So I know with alcohol it would be the same - but worse.

I am happy to say I have not had an oreo cookie since March 31, 2014. ha ha. It's really cookies in general that I need to let go of, but oreos are my favorite, one of my comfort foods and the one I would obsess over; I stopped eating them and told myself I could have some when I really really wanted one, but I just haven't; like I said I'm pretty much staying away from chocolate (and things coated in sugar).

Tomorrow I start month 11. During month 12 my plan is to make a new commitment to myself. I have lost 40 pounds as of a couple of days ago. My goal was to lose 60 pounds in a year- this is not going to happen, but I'm ok with it- like I said I plan to recommit to another year of exercise and to my new eating lifestyle. A huge part of the reason I made this commitment to myself is health. I knew in 2014 I would come to the end of 5 years of post breast cancer medication and it scared me. I take these pills (Arimidex) for 5 years and then I'm done. So....these pills will keep cancer from coming back...and then I stop taking it? Yeah, scared me. I even wrote to my oncologist, who explained that the studies showed 5 years was the right amount of time to take the medication, and after that the risks outweighed the benefits. So I started reading everything about recurrence of cancer and every single article- every single one- said being overweight was a factor. So I decided to do something about it. I'm feeling pretty good now- I'm a size 12-14 depending on what I'm wearing...but I know I know- that's still too heavy. 40 pounds is good- I'm proud of myself. But 60 was and is my goal. And who knows, maybe another 10-20 after that.

I'm lucky, I have some gum equipment available to me. I call the place a gym, but that's using the term loosely ha ha! It's an abandoned house about 6 or 8 houses down from us. There's this old equipment in there on the second story; the stairs are on the outside. The first time I went up there, I said "no way!! This place is gross I'm not exercising in here," and went home. The next day Everardo walked down there with me, took a look, and said- are you crazy? You can use this stuff! I went home and thought about it...and a couple of days later went back down. The owners if the camp gave me a key to it- I think I'm the only person who ever goes there ha ha. Ok well I took some pictures of the place and will post them here:

 The place is sooo beat up. Oh I should have taken a picture of the front side; the people painted it green and it looks pretty nice- but they just painted that one side because it faces the road ha ha. This is the side I go in. And those stairs...yeah every day I go I am super careful because the wood is rotting and old! If you look at the 3rd picture from the top, I piled up those weights there because the machine (it's a bow-flex) is not bolted down so when you pull down on the weights the whole thing swings towards you ha ha.The floor is a disgusting carpet, really dirty, but I never take my shoes off or touch the floor for any reason, so I guess I don't care. So I use the bow-flex and the bench you see in the second picture for leg lifts. There's a pull up thing in the corner...you can also do a type of leg lift that works your stomach...and so far I cannot do a pull up..it kills my elbow....The second to last shot is like a little eliptical- and see how it's put together with little ropes? ha ha but it works. I don't use it because Everardo put my eliptical in our spare bedroom so I use it at home. But maybe the most important thing is........THE VIEW! See the beach out the windows? And when I use the bow-flex I look out the rusty door and see the ocean! One day I saw dolphins swimming and playing, I've seen seals and/or sea lions and many occasions....I have music playing, I brought down a wall clock to measure minutes between weight reps....I look out to the beach which is almost always bare...maybe a person or two out walking with their dogs.

My dogs come with me every time.Sam, the lab, stays down under the stairs, and Hazel runs all over the place; down to the beach and back, in to check on me...then back out. I don't even see the rusty door anymore, or the dirty floor. I do my thing, less than an hour, and head for the beach for 50 minutes of zumba dancing. It's free, my doggies get their exercise, I watch the water, the pelicans, fishing boats....yeah it's a pretty good deal. So my exercise program is a pretty big part of my life, which is why I decided to start talking about it here.

Anyway......Carmina, the young lady who is now one of my students and teaches the zumba class told me I could come for free- I know she said it because the English class is free, and we also talked in class about the zumba class. I was initally excited since I've been thinking about adding it to my routine for a few weeks (to push myself and also to learn some new steps), but I have decided I need to pay her. My class was never going to be for money; her's is her business. I know she started it last year when I went in the evening and she just had 5 or 8 people. I heard she has closer to 20 now, but she is very young- maybe 19 or 20, has a daughter (at least one) has another job, and is trying to do this zumba class in the morning and come to my class. I need to be paying- I think I can afford 40 pesos a week (since I only plan to go twice a week). I also think I'll probly not do it for too long! I usually get up around 7:30 and drink my coffee and watch the news, then start my exercise routine at 9am....so this is really early for me ha ha. I really hope she comes back to English class on Monday- she sent word that she planned on it...

So- I had a good week. Hit 40 pounds, getting in the groove with the class, still going to meditation every other Wed in the afternoon....yeah my life is pretty good. I'm also going to try and start writing every day or at least every other day here. I read that a successful blog has entries ever day, and that photos are a good idea. Someone made a very nice comment just today; that they like my writing style and following my adventures. So I'll end this with a picture of my dogs who you will start seeing more of...

So this is a photo of the walking path on the other side of our place (beach on one side, estuary on the other) and a photo of my dinner- low cal but you can't go wrong with fresh caught shrimp and veggies from a roadside stand....jealous of me yet?? :)

Viva!