The Best Mexican Wrestling and Male Strippers

That's how my night went.  How was yours?

I got to play 'Press' at Lucha Vavoom at the Mayan Theater last night.  It was an epic evening!  I was there to support my good friend Jim Turner (of 'Arliss' fame) in his Sashay Gigante performance.  If you've never seen the show...you haven't lived life!*(see footnote)

I got a press pass so that I could take fab pics of the evening, and fab pics were taken!  The whole evening was just splendid, the burlesque ladies that started the evening were very...um...talented.  The commentators were ridiculously funny and the wrestlers.  Oh my, how do I describe the wrestlers??

I'll let the evening speak for itself with pics:

The funny thing I found myself doing though before heading out for the evening was trying 'Dress like Press' or how I perceived them to dress.  Then I had the thought, well if I feel like I have to dress the part to be it, then why do I not think 'Dress like a successful actress' every time I leave the house?  This needs to start happening!  There's a new goal for myself...but then again, how do successful actress' dress?  However they want!   ;) 

*This is a phrase my father used to use often.  I would get so annoyed by it and be like, 'Well, i guess i haven't lived then...' ha, but now in my "wise old age" I quite like the phrase.  Thanks, Dad!

Reboot Aftermath

I lasted 6 solid days on the cleanse.  On the 7th day I awoke with feverish chills and barely made it to my kitchen without passing out and shoved an apple in my mouth as fast as I could.  Now, I don't want to say this to discourage anyone from trying the cleanse.  I really actually feel like I benefited from it.  So much so that now I'm nervous to completely go off of it because I feel like my body will just completely revert to its pre-cleanse self in a minute!

My main goals for the cleanse were to see if it helped my focus, mental clarity and my skin.  I believe it did all three.  Plus, my stomach is the flattest its been in years...crazy.  On day 7, I started adding food back into my diet, but still steered clear of alcohol, sugar and carbs as much as possible.  I ate veggies, fruits and protein and still made myself drink a juice.  So, for the remainder of my 10 days I continued doing that.  Juicing, and only eating raw foods and proteins, and just a little teensy bit of bread here and there.  I have to slowly re-introduce the more complex man-made foods back into my diet so as to not completely lose everything i worked for in the past week and 1/2.

Now, though, I'm finding it challenging because my head is so worried that everything I put in my body will do extreme damage, that I'm scared to eat.  Don't get me wrong, I am eating.  I love food.  But, I'm being very picky and very slow to put harmful things in my body.  I guess this is a good thing...?  I just hope maybe it'll eventually become second nature and that way I won't have to think about it, but instead it'll just be instinct to choose the better options.

Sometimes I feel like a robot now, I look at a piece of food and in my brain calculate it's beneficial aspects vs. it's completely useless aspects and depending on how useless I avoid it.  Nuts.  I thought I was healthy before, but I suppose there are always ways to be even healthier.

Huh...would you ever try a juice cleanse?  I highly recommend it!

All or Nothing...or is it all nothing?

I've gone and done it.  Jumped on the healthy train.  I restarted training with a personal trainer and now I'm going all out with a juice cleanse.  I love it!  I feel focused and ready to sore!

While making my first juice for Day #2 of juicing I had a revelation about myself.  I made a juice last night that tasted so horrible, I had to try with all my might not to gag with every sip.  But, I forced it down knowing it was full of good for me things.  Today, though, I was determined not to make juice that is hard to swallow, because if i follow that pattern, I'm sure to fail.  So, I simplified.  My problem last night was that I tried to put every ingredient and it's mother into the same juice.  Well...lo and behold, not every fruit and vegetable tastes all that lovely when mixed with each other.  Here's what I put in this morning's juice:  Kale, Carrots, Cucumber and Pineapple.  Perfection.  Still lots of veggies with the sweetness of the fruit.  Not bad.

What I realized after thinking about my 'gung-ho' juicing attitude was that, simplifying is a glorious thing!  I applied this to my life.  I do so many things in a day/week/month that are good for me, but end up feeling spent and unfocused and altogether unaccomplished, my days become hard to swallow.  Well, I need to simplify and try not to cram all the good for me stuff into one months time, but rather spread it out a bit.  That way I can enjoy the flavor of each activity on it's own and give it one hundred percent of my attention as opposed to whatever I have left.

My challenge for myself over the next few weeks is to really concentrate on the things that make me feel good.  I'm not going to say yes to every favor or every activity that comes my way because I think it's a 'good cause', but because I truly feel that I can give it my full attention and brain power and therefore better myself and the world around me. 

Check out Jeff Phillips website: http://www.jeffphillipscft.com/  and click on the link to 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead'.  It's what totally motivated me to want to 'reboot'.

What healthy changes have you made lately?

Breaking News

A year ago, yesterday, I sat at a restaurant sipping a beer with a fellow actor friend.  We were both feeling high spirited about the recent career successes we'd had at that point.  I told him, 'Ok, we have to come back here next year on this day and celebrate how famous we are!'  Well, we didn't make it back to the restaurant because he's out of town and I was working, and you may not see our faces plastered on any upcoming movie billboards, but the distance I've come from a year ago, the growing success I see in every day, you might as well say, well, I feel pretty damn famous anyway!

I've had a a really great couple of weeks and want to share all my good news with you! Check out the trailers for 'Plastic' and 'Bled White', two indie features I filmed in Chicago in the last 4yrs:

Here's the trailer to 'Plastic', (I'm no techy, i couldn't get it to link here): http://vimeo.com/35210970

Now the really exciting part...they're both available on DVD!  You can pre-order them on Amazon.com or wait and buy them at Walmart and BestBuy.

As an actress this is a very exciting thing!  Who knows, maybe only a handful of people will buy them, but the fact that when people ask, 'Oh, you act, what have you been in?'  I now get to respond with, 'I have two features available on amazon.  You should check 'em out!' That feels really great.

Movin' on up!  Next step...I'll be on the big screen.  Soon people.  Believe it!

If you want more info on where/how to find them on amazon check out my fb page!  www.facebook.com/colleenireneboag

The Secret to Success

In a recent discussion of my career as an actress my man said to me, 'Well, you've got nowhere to go but up, right?'  Now, many would've been insulted by this comment.  And I fully know it was not meant to be an insult, nor did I take it as such.  Instead I heard it as, 'Well, the sky's the limit, right?'

And he's totally right!  As an actor, most of us don't realize how true it is that when we're just starting out or struggling to get that first big break, there really is nowhere to go but up.  We can't possibly lose the jobs we've already done, get cut out of films we've already seen ourselves in, lose the connections we've already got.  Sure, we can piss people off, but that doesn't make us go lower than we already are, if anything it makes us memorable.

Haha, ok that sounds cynical or something, but it's not meant to be.  It's actually meant to be encouraging.  As an artist, in this ever changing weird career field where there is no right and wrong, no black and white, we must hold on to the thought that every step we take is a step forward, not back or 'down', but forward, something new, something different, something exciting and something filled with potential.

That's really all I have to say about that.  Short and sweet.  

Planes, Trains & Automobiles...

What a week of traveling I had! The week started in Virginia; wedding for one of my man's best friends from high school. It was so much fun! It was nice and casual and cozy. No stuffy decorations, uptight bridesmaids and uncomfortable seating arrangements. It was buffet, let's get drunk and dance in this crazy humidity like no ones business kind of fun! And I made some new friends! My absolute favorite thing about the wedding was chatting with people who are not in the entertainment business at all! For the first time in months I had conversations about things that are genuinely important in life, other than, "how many twitter followers do u have?" (um...are you following me on twitter yet? @ColleenBoag) ;). It was refreshing and reinvigorating! Just what the doctor ordered.

 Next stop was home, sweet, home. I got to hang with my new nephew! Relaxing, right? Ha! Absolutely not! What a little doll. He is one of the smiliest babies I've ever known, that is when he's being held. If you put him down he will attempt to climb you, cuz, nobody puts baby on the carpet! Oh man! Every day around 2pm I needed a nap! Did I get one? Usually not. How do my sis and bro-in-law do it?? I give them major props! I was exhausted and I was only there for a week! I cannot imagine that full-time. Oy.

 Then next and last stop for me on this crazy crazy week was VEGAS! I was meeting up with friends for a surprise dirty thirty. It was great! I can't really divulge more than that since what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Wish I had gotten to spend more time there but I had to return to LA a day early because *sigh, unfortunately (please read sarcasm here) I got a callback for a feature I auditioned for a few weeks back! And then luck of the draw I was scheduled for a second audition for yet another feature later that evening. I was out of town for 8 days, in three different cities and it feels very surreal to be back in LA and back to the grind. I needed the getaway and feel ready to get back to it! Big things are coming...big things!

What's your fave getaway?

Jillian Micheals, you're such a bully!

Or is she?  As I sit here, eating a bag of totilla chips, I wonder, 'Why is my workout plan failing?' 

I started P90x with a group of my girlfriends approx 5 1/2 weeks ago.  We were all really pumped!  Really motivated!  Really ready to be fit!  Yeah!  Let's do this!  We committed to doing 6 days a week at 8:30am alternating who's house we'd be at, depending on what equipment we needed, driving btw Hollywood, Studio City and Los Feliz. 

Week 1, fabulous!  We all felt really excited and dedicated and motivated.  Week 2, our schedules started having to be shifted around a little, but we made it work with 'accountability' buddies so that if one person couldn't do am, maybe someone would be willing to do pm with them instead.  Awesome.

Week 3, thank goodness!  Last week with this routine, then we switch it up and start doing different exercises.  Week 4, we discussed and decided that following the 'Classic' schedule wasn't working for us.  Hmm..let's not lose hope, let's try out the 'Lean' version.  Cool.  Here we are at the end of week 5, starting week 6 and to be honest, we're all extremely, well, FREAKING FRUSTRATED!

We've been so hardcore about this, so dedicated, we've been doing our very best to eat healthy, low fat, low cal meals, high protein, blah blah blah blah.  Why the heck are we not more excited for beach season??

For me personally, my goal isn't to lose weight.  I just want to be in kick a** fighting shape so that when Quentin Tarantino calls me up to star in 'Kill Bill 3', I'll be able to present my amazingly toned body and proudly say, 'I totally fit into this movie'.  Well...you'd think that after 5 weeks of 1hr workouts for 6days straight, you'd look like a Greek god. 

Um...not the case.  Alright, I admit my eating habits could be better (i just put the tortilla bag away), but really, there's not too much I could adjust.  I do recall a year ago, I gave up alcohol for an entire 30 days.  Doesn't seem like it would be such a hard thing for someone to do, but when you're social life consists of bars and parties, it's a bit of a challenge.  Anyway, I did it! Successfully!  I didn't have beer, wine or cocktails for 30 days and I remember feeling great!  I shed some pounds, while I was toning up and felt unstoppable. 

Maybe that's the key.  No alcohol for me.  I could probably do without.  But, I gotta admit, it's just a bunch easier to mingle with a ton of strangers when you have a quick sip of some Pinot Noir...

Now, I'm not planning on 'giving up' on this P90x thing, but I feel like the only way I'll see results is by adding to it.  Ugh.  After an hr long workout in the am it really isn't enticing to plan a second workout later that day.  But, for the good of my career and my mood, it may be the answer.

Have you had any success with P90x or Jillian Michaels?  I'd love to hear what/how you succeeded!