meagan's Journal

31

Dec 2008
4:32 AM EST

Happy New Year!

I've got TONS of goals for 2009!� My main fitness goal is to lose approximately 40 pounds of fat, re-gain some of the muscle I lost while pregnant, and compete in IDFA's Toronto Classic on July 11 with my best body yet!� I've lost about 35 pounds since I had my baby at the end of August without really trying (a mixture of not having time to eat all day because I'm so busy with him, breastfeeding, and not hanging out at restaurants so much), I've been teaching my dance and exercise classes, walking a lot (it's too hard to get on streetcars with a big stroller), and getting down to the gym a bit, but thus far�my fitness efforts have�been pretty sporadic and lazy in my mind... which is fine - I don't mind that I gave myself a few months to re-adjust my new life as a mom�without throwing myself right back into super- workout-girl-mode as soon as I got home from the hospital.� But, now It think it's time to get crazy!!!� I've set a very reasonable goal of competing in July, so I have 7 months to get ripped!� I'm so excited about getting more serious about my training (and less excited about super clean eating).� Now I just have to decide if I'm going to compete in fitness or figure... Getting� a fitness routine together now that I've been out of the scene for so long may be challenging, but I might try!� I'll keep you posted!� HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tags: fitness competitions new year workout dance

2 comment(s) - 10:10 PM - 01/12/2009

22

Oct 2008
11:14 AM EST

Motherhood is CRAZY!!!

OK, so I had my beautiful baby boy, Zakariah on August 30!� I knew being a new mom would be very challenging, but I wasn't prepared for this!!!� The past almost two months have been insane to say the least!� But, I'm actually started to feel a bit more comfortable with it all now!� I'm back to teaching a few dance classes a week at my studio, and I've tried to resume my�daily workouts (whenever Zak will let me!)� Sometimes I get my cardio by jumping around the living room to Pussycat Dolls while making faces at my baby to keep him happy, or�if he falls asleep I can take him down in his stroller to the gym in our condo.� I gained a whopping total of 60 pounds during this pregnancy - too many cupcakes and ice cream for sure!� But, how I'm looking at it now is -�it will just make for a more�dramatic body makeover!� I took a before picture in a bikini last week - eek!�(at which point I was 40 pounds over my normal weight), so over the next few months I hope to make huge progress with my body transformation back into it's fit self (and hopefully even better than before my pregnancy�- as I plan to compete in a fitness competition in the late spring or early summer!)� I'll keep you all posted on my journey!

02

Aug 2008
10:44 AM EST

Pregnancy!

I haven't posted for a LONG time here!� Let me update you all... I'm over 8 months pregnant (less than 4 weeks to go till my due date) so I haven't been training for a fitness competition or anything like that lately.� But, thinking about it, getting ready to have a baby surprisingly has many similarities to getting ready for a fitness competition... You have to stay fit, eat the right things, do special exercises to help with birth, you get weighed every two weeks by your doctor (not for the same reason you weigh yourself when leaning out for a fitness comp, but still), you have the calendar countdown (3 weeks and 4 days till the big day and counting!), you're obsessed with reading everything to do with babies, birth,� and pregnancy online and in books just as you would be for fitness comps, and of course you join a few forums on the topic, you drive your family and friends nuts obsessing over both, and of course,� your body changes dramatically for both (in different ways!)

I've been keeping up with my workouts throughout the pregnancy, but of course I've lowered the weights, upped the reps, and I don't run for cardio anymore.� Usually I do some sort of elliptical or walking workout for cardio which feels totally lame to me cause I LOVE to run, but it's OK for now I guess!� I also have continued teaching almost all my dance classes at the studio which I think is keeping me fit and sane!�

I have so many goals for once the baby has come and I can start working on my body again.� I can't wait to be hardcore again! I actually hope to compete in a fitness competition in June 2009!� I'll keep you posted!

21

Dec 2006
1:23 AM EST

Wow, am I ever sore today! Yesterday was a killer day on my body - which is great! If only I could work that hard everyday... I worked out at 5:30am with my training buddy (40 minutes running + legs), then I started kickboxing (more on this below), 2 hours of Latin dance, next I rushed to my studio to teach 3 classes (1 hour of cardio, 1 hour of bellydance boot camp, 1 hour of beginner bellydance). Then home, and I even managed to find the energy to cook a nice healthy dinner for me and Wala'a! So, kickboxing... it's a real thrill and a little scary, but I'm so excited about it whipping me into shape! It's not some little kickboxing aerobics class - it's at a real kickboxing-only gym and it's hardcore! I always thought I was strong and tough, but taking this class makes me see what a sissy I am! It's great to try something totally different - it's like the opposite of all my soft, feminine dancing I teach, so it can balance me out hopefully! It's also great to be a beginner at something again - it makes me see what my beginner students are going through! I'm going to try to go 2 - 3 times a week because they have daytime classes which is great for me! I'm starting to realize some fat loss and I have vowed to be a workout maniac and eat super clean right throught he weekend so I can hopefully be at 154 pounds by Monday. Monday is Christmas Day so I know I will be splurging on bad food and lots of it that day, but I want to keep it to just one day of that not a whole week! I ordered a really cute bikini from Victoria's Secret (for my trip to Dominican Republic at the end of Jan) and it arrived two days ago. It's great and I love it, but after tying it on, I'm even more motivated to work my butt off in the gym and keep eating right! I would really love to lose 15 pounds by the time I go away and I've broken my goals down by the weeks (just as I would if I were prepping for a fitness comp, so it should work out fine! Thank you all for voting for me in the Extreme Fitness Model Search online - thanks to all my friends/students/fans I have ranked 3rd or 4th for a while now! And I have the most amount of votes overall! It's really thrilling because I see there are so many people who believe in me! Thank you, and keep those votes coming!

11

Dec 2006
8:46 AM EST

The holidays are coming and the studio is getting a little bit less hectic (classes are still going, but they start winding down a bit for the holidays this and next week). So, I'll have a bit of extra time for about 2 weeks when I'm planning on getting one of my Bellydance Instructional DVDs done as well as finishing choreographing my Latin troupe's (TropiCaliente) show for March. I'm so excited to be working on these projects as well as continuing to get more in shape! There are only 6-weeks until I'll be hanging out on a beach for a week in Dominican Republic so it's time to get serious about my bikini bod. I'm ordering some new bikinis from Victoria's Secret to get me even more motivated to eat clean and work my butt off in the gym. I'm entered in an online fitness model competition and I need your votes! Check it out at http://www.undiscovered.com/html/hotornot_detail .php? id=54&contest_type=H You can vote for me everyday until Dec. 31 if you want! Thanks a bunch! Bye for now!

17

Nov 2006
4:40 AM EST

Well, it's been quite a while since I posted last! What's happened since then? I turned 28 on November 5th and had a great weekend of fun (friends, family, cake,drinks,shisha,cheesy nightclub,what more could a girl ask for?) The day after my birthday I re-comitted to a crazy-healthy lifestyle (which has been going pretty well so far! Since I'm not planning on doing any fitness competitions anytime soon (too many other things to focus on right now like all my dance-related things... more about that later), I'm trying to keep some other goals in mind to keep with my healthy eating and working-out going strong (looking hot in a bikini when I go away to Dom. Rep. in Jan., TropiCaliente's big Latin/Brazilian dance show scheduled for March 24th, and of course life in general and liking how I look and feel!) I've been eating between 1200 - 1500 calories a day lately and staying away from junk which is feeling great. I've also been doing 5 days of 45 - 60 minutes of hard cardio + weights (3 day split) Weekends are my big problems though - I tend to ruin a lot of my hard work over the weekend when I crave fun foods! I'm going to try not to do that this weekend! I've made quite a few dance goals over the past little while. I've been working on learning new techniques in bellydance to keep things fresh and challenging (Suhaila-style glute-squeezes, etc. and Tribal-Fusion from Audra). I got accepted to perform at the Toronto Bellydance Conference in April and I have a really special crazy choreography I'll be working on with 3 other bellydance choreographers for that. My folk troupe also go into the lottery stage so that's exciting! I also booked my Latin group (TropiCaliente) in at Harbourfront's Lakeside Terrace for our first big show of our own for March 24th. Lots to do for this including finding a few new dancers, lots of rehearsals, costume-making, and choreographing! Since I've been looking at lots of Latin dance lately and listening to salsa music (which I've been away from for ages), it really has re-inspired me to get back into that whole scene! I'm going to try to fix up my own Salsa technique, choreograph a lot, get out to a club at least once a week, and get my group dancing at salsa events again, and maybe even convince Wala'a to get back into it with me. I was deeply into the salsa scene when it was just fun, now there are so many new styles and it's a lot more competitive and serious! For years I've kind of been on the outskirts of all the showiness that's been going on at Latin CLubs and congresses, but I think I'll throw myself right back into it all! I downloaded a lot of old salsa music that really brings me back to a really fun time in my life (when I was about 18 and going out to all the Latin clubs every night here in TO and teaching every night and performing) It's really amazing to me what music can make you remember or feel! I love it. I'll try to update a little more frequently here from now on!

04

Oct 2006
2:39 AM EST

Wow, it has been a busy start to my week! I'm working SO much, but I feel hyper and happy to work lately so that's good. I had a lot of computer work Monday and Tuesday and I just sat there for 9 hours every day after my morning workout, then I went straight to the studio to teach my classes at night. It really helps me to not stray from my healthy-eating diet cause I feel I can't think of anything except WORK WORK WORK! So, I have eaten really well this week so far and I'm actually starting to see a little bit of improvement in how my body is looking (which seemed to take forever this time after cleaning up my diet and working out for a few weeks). Yesterday I mixed up my workout by taking a step class at Goodlife - that was a really great idea and I think I'll take a few classes a week - might as well since I belong to a real gym now! It really is a lot more inspiring than doing the stairclimber or the treadmill by myself - I had forgotten how good a sweat you get from exercise classes! I'm usually a total spazz in step class (and to think - I used to teach it!) but I wasn't as bad as I thought I'd be yesterday! This morning I went for a run outdoors and later I'll be teaching two cardio types of classes at the studio so that will be it for me in terms of working out. As well as getting tons of work for my studio done, I've been having a really creative time lately - I've come up with two whole shows I want to put on in 2007 - one a Latin one for my group (which has been a long time coming) and another brand new idea for a solo bellydance show (more details coming soon!) I've decided that if I can make it through each week being really healthy I will reward myself at the end of the week with something I want... this week, if I can stay pretty clean all week, I will finally go and get my hair fixed once and for all (colour-wise). If you know me at all - you know what I'm talking about probably! Anyways, must get to the studio now for a 10:30am class. Bye for now!

25

Sep 2006
12:54 AM EST

I'm proud of myself for my eating! Not that it was that hardcore and great in general, but for me personally it was superb! I usually have a really rough time on weekends staying good, but I did fine this weekewnd - I actually didn't eat enough! Friday I had my studio's 3-year anniversary party and so I gave myself that day off from being too strict and had a few glasses of wine and some pita with dip. It was a really fun party and I got to see some friends I don't get to see too often. The next morning was too early - got into the studio by about 7am to clean up from the night before and then had 3 regular classes, a Shake it Like Shakira workshop, and a class for a bachelorette party all at my studio, by the end of all of that I was wiped! I went to my moms for a bit and fuelled up on lean ground beef with veggies, tomatoe sauce, and ricotta (my new fave clean meal). I basically hadn't eaten throughout the day. I had a whole cooler full of good intentions (I brought cottage cheese, tuna, and fruit with me), but had no time to eat as each class seemed to run into the next. Yesterday was a very busy day too with two classes and a two-hour workshop - again, didn't eat all day, but usually after a day like that I tend to get home and totally binge on garbage. Not last night! It's Ramadan now, so Wala'a was breaking the fast with his family so I got our groceries done, cooked, and cleaned, and didn't even feel like eating all that much last night (had some bit of hummus with veggies, and later some yogurt with honey) Not bad. Only sucky part is that I feel all fat and bloated today even after being so healthy... hopefully that will pass soon because I find it very challeging to eat right all week and still see no difference. I just got back from a run, and soon I'll be meeting my mom to do a weight workout at Goodlife.

19

Sep 2006
9:02 AM EST

So, I have officially decided to lose 10 - 14 pounds by my 28th birthday (which is Nov. 5)- this gives me a very realistic time frame. I plan to lose 2 lbs each week. How? - running outside with my friend 2 - 3 time a week early morning (40 - 50 minutes each run) - my regular cardio (stairclimber, elliptical, bike, etc.) everyday at least 1 hour - weight training at least 5 days/week (3 day split) - and of course - the most important component (and the hardest for me...) Healthy eating!!! So, I officially started this new life yesterday and it's going well so far! I did 3 workouts yesterday (one run with friend, one hour of cardio, plus weight training (chest/triceps/ shoulders/abs) with my mom at GoodLife. I ate totally clean yesterday (even when I got home from teaching which is when I usually screw up food-wise). I forced myself to sleep in this morning till 9:00 because my body was feeling really worn-out and tired when I went to bed. Got to the gym this aft and did an hour of cardio (The Hooters Girls bikini competition was on one of the TVs at the gym so that inspired me to keep stairclimbing!!!) and I did some weights. I'm at 158 pounds currently, and my goal is 148 (or less!)

15

Sep 2006
6:04 PM EST

Today my dad came in to Toronto to visit me... I haven't seen him since the start of the summer and I almost didn't recognize him when I saw him... he's lost SO much weight... he had told me he lost like 50 pounds or something like that in the past little while, but I wasn't prepared to see that big a difference it made on him... I've never in my whole life seen him look so healthy and slim! His tummy is totally gone! It was a very fun visit - we walked and talked A LOT and ate some terrific food! But, it was really inspirational hearing about how great he feels after losing all this weight and living a much more healthy life than before! It totally inspires me to clean up my act a bit more now! Also, the new issue of Oxygen is out today so that's always a boost too! I'm eager to get down to the gyme early tomorrow morning and start whipping this bod back into shape!

14

Sep 2006
1:06 AM EST

Last night me and my friend bellydanced at a film festival party - kinda weird because no one was really paying all that much attention to our shows - it was like we were just part of the atmosphere, not a feature (which kinda bugs me).This week has been super-busy with all new classes starting at my studio - tons of new beginners, plus I'm starting to prepare for our big student showcase in December by starting all the choreographies with the classes! On Sunday me and Wala'a painted the studio white(something I've wanted to do for years now), but we didn't finish the hall or the office. Tonight after all the classes are done I will be tackling that single-handedly! I'm thinking I'll be there all night! It's just hard because the smell stays around for a while and I don't have one day where there isn't a dance class... Friday's not so bad as I just have my outdoor circuit training boot camp so that's why I'm doing it tonight. I'm just about to leave for my appointment with an osteopath to see what's wrong with my neck (it's been killing me for about a month or two now)! I started my day off with no exercise and a giant cookie from last night! I need to clean up my act!

30

Aug 2006
1:17 AM EST

Well, it's Wednesday - the middle of the week and I'm still going strong with my healthy eating. I feel SO much better when I'm on a regular eating schedule of 5 small healthy meals a day. I feel so good when I live like this that I often wonder why I have such a struggle with food and always feel I want to eat bad stuff (especially on weekends)... if I feel at my best when I'm eating right, why would I want to mess with it? I don't know! Why would anyone want to put garbage food into their system? It's funny, I get in these moods when I'm super clean, but then on the weekend when I'm craving Haagen Dasz and Krispy Kreme that all seems to go out the door! I just got back from a nice (but hard) outdoor run with my friend. I've been pretty crazy-busy with work for the studio that I highly doubt I'll get to the gym for a weight workout today so I'll just do that tomorrow. Yesterday me and my mom worked chest, triceps, and shoulders and I'm really feeling my chest! I'm excited that this weekend is a holiday and I have two days off because I'm feeling a little worn down - my back went out on Monday night and feels a little funky still and I think I'm coming down with a cold (Wala'a just got over one). So the time-off will be good for me hopefully!

28

Aug 2006
1:11 AM EST

Had a fun weekend, but it went by so very quickly! I had lots of work teaching at my studio this weekend during the daytimes, but I was trying to fit in more fun, social time too so I got out for dinner and dancing on Friday, went to our friends' house for dinner and catching up Saturday, then yesterday after work me and Wala'a got to the CNE finally and that was fun (I must go back again before it's over cuz he refuses to look at the cheap clothing building with me anymore cuz I get so caught up, take a long time, and want to buy everything there!) Today I'm trying to get onto a good schedule of healthy eating and even more exercise! I just got back from a very hard run with my friend so that was good to start it all off! And around noon I'm meeting my mom to do weights with her and I'll prob also do some more cardio at the gym too!

23

Aug 2006
2:17 AM EST

Yesterday I got a lot of work done which felt great as I've been way too busy to do any new tasks lately. And then last night after teaching one class at my studio, I danced at a bellydance fundraising event called From the Hip: a fundraiser for Lebanon & Gaza at Lula Lounge. There were so many terrific dancers performing, Lula Loungs is such a nice venue, and it was for such a great cause - it all felt very good. I missed most of the start of the show as I rushed in from just having taught and had to get dressed and made-up still, but then I snuck down and had the pleasure of seeing a few performers before me. It's so inspiring to see other dancers doing great shows! I performed a piece that was half improvised and half choreographed and I actually felt OK about my performance which is unusual. Lately I've been feeling blah about my own shows. I didn't feel WOW about this one, but I felt decent at least. I kinda wished I could've stayed later, but I also really wanted to get home, eat, and get to bed - I'm such an oldster! The bad thing about the night was after eating really clean all day, I splurged and had bread and butter dipped in tomatoe sauce with feta cheese (my fave new indulgence)and I topped it off with some ice cream! This should be a lesson to me not to let myself get to starving hungry cause then I binge like that! Anyways, today is a new day and I just finished working out (60 mins cardio & back/biceps)and I'm eating my health breakfast of egg whites and cherries (Wala'a brough me yellow ones from work last night). I really must do my groceries soon - I miss my oatmeal!

22

Aug 2006
11:05 AM EST

Today is my second day of my new life. My new life is all about balance - not being psycho-crazy about clean eating and working out all day, but also not about pigging out all day on all my favourite treats (like I did all this weekend at the buffets in Niagara falls)! After deciding not to compete in the August fitness model competition I put on lots of fat over just three weeks from eating everything I wanted! I do feel I needed that after being so strict for a while, but now I'm aiming for a balanced, healthy, fit lifestyle! I'll keep you posted on how it's going everyday! m

meagan's Profile

Username: meagan

Gender / Age: Female, 46

Location: Canada

Photo Album

1-1 of 1

MEAGAN's Interests:

Interests: fitness, working out, bellydance, Latin & Brazilian dance

Favorite Music: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, 50 Cent, Kanye West, MIA, and of course Arabic and Latin music!

Favorite Movies: Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing, pretty much any dance movie! Oh, and Pumping Iron.

Favorite Television: Young & The Restless, South Park. So You Think You Can Dance.

Favorite Books: I have so many faves, currently I'm reading Joshi's Holistic Life Plan and it's right up my alley!

MEAGAN's Friends:
redshotlizard