SHOPPING
That's right, ladies! Do I have your attention yet?? hahaha
On Thursday last week after my morning run and post Mr. Man and I had some time to ourselves. We had originally planned to hit a matinee movie buuuuuuuuut turned out the online listing was incorrect and the movie was playing three hours later than we needed it to - boo on that. SO, being at the mall and having TONNES of disposable income (ha ha haaaaaaaaa... OY!) we went SHOPPING!
There are many 'girl' things in life I really really do not enjoy.
I LOVE shopping. I LOVE new things. I LOVE finding a sale. I LOVE how awesome I feel in my brand-new stuff. It's shallow, it's superficial, it's ridiculous, but I LOVE IT.
Mr. Man bought some time for an online game and we wandered. I had hoped to buy a new pair of shoes and/or flip flops for the summer - my nice leather flip flops from a few years back finally died last year leaving me stumped every time I go to leave the house in the nice weather this year - what DO I wear on my feet??? BUT we wandered in and out of shoe stores and I just did NOT find that pair, you know? I found lots of okay pairs, and some I really liked, but we really DON'T have any money so I was being super-dee-duper picky for a change. Kudos to me.
THEN I said, oh heck, let's go to the sport store and just drool over running clothes. I do only have the one pair of super-sexy Saucony capris Mom gave me for Christmas (which I LOVE, by the way, except I'm sure it's cruelty for me to appear outside of the home in them....SORRY all you bystanders! hahaha) and a technical tee I got free for registering early for the 5K run I did last month. Which makes.....ONE complete running 'outfit'. And I'm a sweater. Like, ew. SO by the end of one run I've completely soaked through my gear and that's only one of seven days down in the week.
Good thing I don't try to run every day. ;) HAhaha!! There's a REASON for laziness!!
ANYWAY, fortune of good fortunes, or....not..... we wander into the store, and SURPRISE! There's a SALE!! A SALE!! Oh, did I mention how much I LOVE sales?!?! I LOVE sales!! 25% off short-sleeved and sleeveless athletic shirts and 25% off SHORTS!! I couldn't believe it!!! I mean, 'proper' workout gear is EXPENSIVE, so 25% translates to a good chunk of change!! I wasn't thrilled about the 'shorts' sale, but figured I'd take a peak just in case, but definitely planned to grab another shirt or two.
Holy CRAP it was fantastic. UNDER ARMOUR - hello, have you ever seen or heard of THAT being on sale?!?! - was included in the sale and is FANTASTIC!!! I even found SHORTS that I LOVE LOVE LOVE and can't believe I've lived this long in my life without them. I ended up with two pairs of FANTASTIC, NOT-freakishly-weird-looking running shorts and two feels-like-cotton-works-like-UA-tees that fit and feel AWESOME.
I've never been so stoked to run in my life, I don't think. I LOVE my new clothes. I got a run in Friday before getting down to the grindstone and working and found an excuse, though no time for a run, to wear one of my new tees to an amusement park yesterday - why be hot in all that sunshine???
I'm looking forward to at least three runs this coming week - a different CLEAN outfit for each run! hahaha
For all the shopaholics out there looking for some motivation to exercise - go splurge on some GREAT gear. None of the fancy oh-I-look-hot-in-this garbage - the functional, comfortable, FANTASTIC stuff you're never going to want to take off. You'll workout JUST to have an excuse to wear it!!
Stealing Posts!
I just hopped over to Steph's blog for a minute and found myself reading some GREAT stuff, that, frankly SHE stole originally so I don't feel too bad posting it here. ;) hahaha
If you have a few minutes, pop over and read this tidbit cited as being from Bob Moorehead.
But my FAVOURITE steal for today:
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." -Lance Armstrong
(I DID get my run in already today - just a SLOW 5K, but it's done) :D
If you have a few minutes, pop over and read this tidbit cited as being from Bob Moorehead.
But my FAVOURITE steal for today:
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." -Lance Armstrong
(I DID get my run in already today - just a SLOW 5K, but it's done) :D
Oy, Oy, Oy.
Huh. I wonder if it's 'cause I'm not in school right now so my life isn't completely taken over by my whole kin-major-ness. But OY!! Where has the time GONE?!?!
Okay, let me catch you up:
5-factor, though awesome, is just NOT conducive to...well, whatever it is that I'm trying to accomplish right now. I think with Little Miss around, running the business, and trying to have some SUMMER in my summer it's just TOO structured. I think that was my main complaint when I tried it last time after she was born. BeFORE we had Little Miss, I was preaching 5-factor everywhere - it was SO EASY to fit it in - seriously, 25 minutes 5 times a week - PIECE of cake!! BUT I could do it ANY TIME before. NOW I only have my Little-Miss-Free time to exercise, aaaaaaaaand there's a LOT of time with Little Miss.
SO, we're back to running. It's relatively quick, it's simple, I LOVE Optimus Prime (I found the VOLUME buttons on the console yesterday so I can actually HEAR "The Office" instead of having to read the subtitles while I watch! WOOHOO!), and it's FLEXIBLE. I can take my shoes with me anywhere, and if I miss a day, I miss a day.
I DO want to try to supplement it with Yogilates - I LOVE yogilates. All the benefits of yoga with some of the core strength of Pilates. I even worked up a sweat tonight, which doesn't always happen, so apparently I was working hard! :)
Okay, got it?? Running + Yogilates = NEW ME. We hope. I haven't successfully yet kept BOTH going for any length of time (drove me nuts tonight doing the yoga poses - I WOULD have been so much further along if I'd not STOPPED part way through the semester - gah!!) but the regime is very flexible. Hopefully I can do one or the other every day, with Sundays off, of course, but if I miss a day, NOT a problem!!
I'm getting tired and embarrassed continually posting that-failed-let's-try-this each week soooooooo let's do this!!
Okay, let me catch you up:
5-factor, though awesome, is just NOT conducive to...well, whatever it is that I'm trying to accomplish right now. I think with Little Miss around, running the business, and trying to have some SUMMER in my summer it's just TOO structured. I think that was my main complaint when I tried it last time after she was born. BeFORE we had Little Miss, I was preaching 5-factor everywhere - it was SO EASY to fit it in - seriously, 25 minutes 5 times a week - PIECE of cake!! BUT I could do it ANY TIME before. NOW I only have my Little-Miss-Free time to exercise, aaaaaaaaand there's a LOT of time with Little Miss.
SO, we're back to running. It's relatively quick, it's simple, I LOVE Optimus Prime (I found the VOLUME buttons on the console yesterday so I can actually HEAR "The Office" instead of having to read the subtitles while I watch! WOOHOO!), and it's FLEXIBLE. I can take my shoes with me anywhere, and if I miss a day, I miss a day.
I DO want to try to supplement it with Yogilates - I LOVE yogilates. All the benefits of yoga with some of the core strength of Pilates. I even worked up a sweat tonight, which doesn't always happen, so apparently I was working hard! :)
Okay, got it?? Running + Yogilates = NEW ME. We hope. I haven't successfully yet kept BOTH going for any length of time (drove me nuts tonight doing the yoga poses - I WOULD have been so much further along if I'd not STOPPED part way through the semester - gah!!) but the regime is very flexible. Hopefully I can do one or the other every day, with Sundays off, of course, but if I miss a day, NOT a problem!!
I'm getting tired and embarrassed continually posting that-failed-let's-try-this each week soooooooo let's do this!!
Day 2....
....did NOT go as expected BUT I got in the workout, and still in the A.M.
Today was just the 25-minute 5-factor, which is fine and dandy. I remember not really caring for Tuesdays when I did this BEFORE - Tuesday includes sigle-arm dumbell rows with each arm, so takes twice as long to do (at least it feels like it) and THEN for the core exercises you do trunk-lateral-flexion-extension with a dumbell which means you have to do IT on two sides too which takes twice as long again!!
Tuesdays 25 minutes may be slightly super-sized.... BUT still done.
Mr. Man's schedule goes back to 'normal' starting tomorrow again, which knackers my current workout plans. SO we'll see what happens...tomorrow's supposed to be a day off 5-factor but add-in a run. Someone check to see if I did it, will ya'??
Oy.
Today was just the 25-minute 5-factor, which is fine and dandy. I remember not really caring for Tuesdays when I did this BEFORE - Tuesday includes sigle-arm dumbell rows with each arm, so takes twice as long to do (at least it feels like it) and THEN for the core exercises you do trunk-lateral-flexion-extension with a dumbell which means you have to do IT on two sides too which takes twice as long again!!
Tuesdays 25 minutes may be slightly super-sized....
Mr. Man's schedule goes back to 'normal' starting tomorrow again, which knackers my current workout plans. SO we'll see what happens...tomorrow's supposed to be a day off 5-factor but add-in a run. Someone check to see if I did it, will ya'??
Oy.
Day 1
This morning, Mr. Man, Little Miss, and I all got up. Little Miss and I promptly chowed down on bananas (I don't think Mr. Man ate anything first thing...?) aaaand we got moving on our day.
Which for me meant a hefty workout.
Oy.
BUT I DID it! And it wasn't nearly as bad as I psyched myself up for. I think one of the reasons I have a hard time working out in the mornings is that I look at HOW LONG it's going to take and it just feels like a WASTE because if I start 'now' I won't be done for an HOUR and THEN I can shower and get ready - puts the whole day back by an hour and makes me feel lazy. Which is ridiculous because....isn't exercise kinda' near the opposite end of the lazy-super-not-lazy continuum from lazy??
This morning's workout consisted of a five-minute RUN, followed by supersets of chest press and squats, followed by crunches, followed by one-episode-of-"The Office"-lengthed...jog. Really I don't think I can say what I did was run - I was going pretty slow. My legs, after squats, don't really WANT to run all that hard.
Tomorrow: JUST the 25 minute 5-factor workout.
Funny, though - Mr. Man and I finally buckle down with his new schedule and sort things out for how we're gonna' run things aaaaaaand they change his schedule BACK. So Now I feel ill equipped for the OLD schedule again! gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh
OH, and I was re-reading yesterday's post - when I invite you to "join me" I don't mean join me in this SPECIFIC insane work-out schedule, I just meant in general. hahaha Like, if you need some encouragement in YOUR endeavours however great or small, "join" me and let's beat this thing!!
Okay, I think that's enough of that. I'm going to get another 'boring' vote today, aren't I?! *sigh* I should take that option out of the voting.... ;)
Which for me meant a hefty workout.
Oy.
BUT I DID it! And it wasn't nearly as bad as I psyched myself up for. I think one of the reasons I have a hard time working out in the mornings is that I look at HOW LONG it's going to take and it just feels like a WASTE because if I start 'now' I won't be done for an HOUR and THEN I can shower and get ready - puts the whole day back by an hour and makes me feel lazy. Which is ridiculous because....isn't exercise kinda' near the opposite end of the lazy-super-not-lazy continuum from lazy??
This morning's workout consisted of a five-minute RUN, followed by supersets of chest press and squats, followed by crunches, followed by one-episode-of-"The Office"-lengthed...jog. Really I don't think I can say what I did was run - I was going pretty slow. My legs, after squats, don't really WANT to run all that hard.
Tomorrow: JUST the 25 minute 5-factor workout.
Funny, though - Mr. Man and I finally buckle down with his new schedule and sort things out for how we're gonna' run things aaaaaaand they change his schedule BACK. So Now I feel ill equipped for the OLD schedule again! gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh
OH, and I was re-reading yesterday's post - when I invite you to "join me" I don't mean join me in this SPECIFIC insane work-out schedule, I just meant in general. hahaha Like, if you need some encouragement in YOUR endeavours however great or small, "join" me and let's beat this thing!!
Okay, I think that's enough of that. I'm going to get another 'boring' vote today, aren't I?! *sigh* I should take that option out of the voting.... ;)
Happy Mother's Day?
So before we get down to 'business' I HAVE to tell you about my Mother's Day. hahaha
This is my second Mother's Day as a mom. Last year I got a new ceiling fan for my dining room (if you'd have seen the old one you'd be as ecstatic as I was TOO! Little Miss has EXCELLENT taste in ceiling fans!) This year....
Yesterday Mr. Man, Little Miss and I piled into the car for a trip to the Home Depot to get a shelf to put up in our bedroom - we have a tiny house and are falling ever-so-much-more in love with shelves because we suddenly go from NO space to hey-there's-a-spot-to-put-this.... Anyway, we're in the car, about 3pm, and Mr. Man asks "So when IS Mother's Day this year??" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I figured that was that for this year. TOO funny. He was shocked and horrified to discover that he only had 9 hours until Mother's Day.
THEN later, we put Little Miss to bed and were all ready to snuggle down and watch a movie and Mr. Man's pager went off for work. He looks at it, GROANS, and says NOOOOOOO........ He ended up working for a couple of hours (= our movie-watching time) and that was that. We were almost asleep AFTER work when he phone rang ('bout 11:30/12ish - occasionally I hate his job) and he was up working again 'till 1am or so.
SO instead of breakfast in bed this morning to make up for the lack of card, gift or anything Mother's-Day-Ish I was woken by a screaming Little Miss at 6am who I had to tend to as Mr. Man had had the late night working.
I DID get a yummy dinner of BBQ pork chops, and lazed around in bed most of the afternoon so it wasn't a TOTAL bust, but still pretty funny. I thought, anyway. It's just a date on the calendar, though - I know they love me regardless. (It's my BIRTHDAY that really counts... hahaha)
BUT all that aside I wanted to get BACK on track here - I haven't been posting about my exercise or eating or goal-fulfillment (or incredible lack thereof) aaaaaaaand I don't know how I look to the outsider but lemme tell ya' I FEEL like a Heffalump. (Little Miss and I watched "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" today - cute. I'm Mrs. Heffalump. Not-so-cute).
A while back I said I was going to watch the food with my whole belief that I may actually have a PROBLEM and not just a need-for-fuel with food. I did okay for a couple, maybe a few weeks buuuuuut..... ohmigosh, yesterday I made a double-batch of cookies that didn't turn out to be my best batch because I ate too much of the butter/sugar combination before mixing in the other ingredients so the finished product (of which there are WAY WAY WAY WAY too many - what was I THINKING?!?!) is slightly more flour-tasting than it should be. How did I solve that? Rolled the dough in sugar before baking it.
Oy.
See??
And that's not all. Every year for Easter Mom buys Uncle Bravo, Mr. Man, and I each our very own box of 48 Cadbury Cream Eggs - my FAVOURITE. Seriously, I ate them ALL in about a week. Maybe two. Disgusting.
I can't STOP EATING.
And I haven't been running 'regularly' - I've been working so hard on WORK stuff since finals ended I've been finding/making excuses. And while the running may be blasting fat when I can drag my butt away from my desk to do it I have oodles of sags and lumps and bumps to deal with still. Not pretty.
I think part of my problem is the new schedule. Mr. Man's work schedule got changed, too, so we're dealing with all sorts of whoa-what-who's-where-when and it throws me off.
SO here's what I'm HOPING to do, starting tomorrow:
I'd like to re-start the Five-Factor-Fitness workout I used to do BEFORE I got pregnant - I tried to reinstate it immediately after but found it too stringent for life with a newborn. BUT we're going to see if we can buckle down and get this puppy done. I'd like to add three runs/week to the workout if I can - five factor consists of 5 25-minute (intense) exercise sessions/week starting with some high-intensity cardio and then focusing mainly on strength training. Which is all fine-and-dandy but I need to bust FAT soooo need more aerobic training!! Enter running. Which I more-or-less enjoy now anyway, sooo just have to make it all fit in the schedule! But I figure I'm looking at:
Monday: 5-factor+run = 1hr
Tuesday: 5-factor = 25 min
Wednesday: Run = however far/long I go that day ;)
Thursday: 5-factor = 25 min
Friday: 5-factor (plus soccer in the evenings once that starts....SO probably no run)
Saturday: 5-factor + run = 1hr.
Sunday: COMPLETELY OFF
I'm DETERMINED that I can shed this weight. I just have to DO it. SO we'll start with the workout and then work on the food. (There are a LOT of cookies in this house right now - I don't think I'm ready to just throw them out.... *sigh*)
WISH ME LUCK and if you want to JOIN me...leave me a message - it's easier with back-up!!
This is my second Mother's Day as a mom. Last year I got a new ceiling fan for my dining room (if you'd have seen the old one you'd be as ecstatic as I was TOO! Little Miss has EXCELLENT taste in ceiling fans!) This year....
Yesterday Mr. Man, Little Miss and I piled into the car for a trip to the Home Depot to get a shelf to put up in our bedroom - we have a tiny house and are falling ever-so-much-more in love with shelves because we suddenly go from NO space to hey-there's-a-spot-to-put-this.... Anyway, we're in the car, about 3pm, and Mr. Man asks "So when IS Mother's Day this year??" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I figured that was that for this year. TOO funny. He was shocked and horrified to discover that he only had 9 hours until Mother's Day.
THEN later, we put Little Miss to bed and were all ready to snuggle down and watch a movie and Mr. Man's pager went off for work. He looks at it, GROANS, and says NOOOOOOO........ He ended up working for a couple of hours (= our movie-watching time) and that was that. We were almost asleep AFTER work when he phone rang ('bout 11:30/12ish - occasionally I hate his job) and he was up working again 'till 1am or so.
SO instead of breakfast in bed this morning to make up for the lack of card, gift or anything Mother's-Day-Ish I was woken by a screaming Little Miss at 6am who I had to tend to as Mr. Man had had the late night working.
I DID get a yummy dinner of BBQ pork chops, and lazed around in bed most of the afternoon so it wasn't a TOTAL bust, but still pretty funny. I thought, anyway. It's just a date on the calendar, though - I know they love me regardless. (It's my BIRTHDAY that really counts... hahaha)
BUT all that aside I wanted to get BACK on track here - I haven't been posting about my exercise or eating or goal-fulfillment (or incredible lack thereof) aaaaaaaand I don't know how I look to the outsider but lemme tell ya' I FEEL like a Heffalump. (Little Miss and I watched "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" today - cute. I'm Mrs. Heffalump. Not-so-cute).
A while back I said I was going to watch the food with my whole belief that I may actually have a PROBLEM and not just a need-for-fuel with food. I did okay for a couple, maybe a few weeks buuuuuut..... ohmigosh, yesterday I made a double-batch of cookies that didn't turn out to be my best batch because I ate too much of the butter/sugar combination before mixing in the other ingredients so the finished product (of which there are WAY WAY WAY WAY too many - what was I THINKING?!?!) is slightly more flour-tasting than it should be. How did I solve that? Rolled the dough in sugar before baking it.
Oy.
See??
And that's not all. Every year for Easter Mom buys Uncle Bravo, Mr. Man, and I each our very own box of 48 Cadbury Cream Eggs - my FAVOURITE. Seriously, I ate them ALL in about a week. Maybe two. Disgusting.
I can't STOP EATING.
And I haven't been running 'regularly' - I've been working so hard on WORK stuff since finals ended I've been finding/making excuses. And while the running may be blasting fat when I can drag my butt away from my desk to do it I have oodles of sags and lumps and bumps to deal with still. Not pretty.
I think part of my problem is the new schedule. Mr. Man's work schedule got changed, too, so we're dealing with all sorts of whoa-what-who's-where-when and it throws me off.
SO here's what I'm HOPING to do, starting tomorrow:
I'd like to re-start the Five-Factor-Fitness workout I used to do BEFORE I got pregnant - I tried to reinstate it immediately after but found it too stringent for life with a newborn. BUT we're going to see if we can buckle down and get this puppy done. I'd like to add three runs/week to the workout if I can - five factor consists of 5 25-minute (intense) exercise sessions/week starting with some high-intensity cardio and then focusing mainly on strength training. Which is all fine-and-dandy but I need to bust FAT soooo need more aerobic training!! Enter running. Which I more-or-less enjoy now anyway, sooo just have to make it all fit in the schedule! But I figure I'm looking at:
Monday: 5-factor+run = 1hr
Tuesday: 5-factor = 25 min
Wednesday: Run = however far/long I go that day ;)
Thursday: 5-factor = 25 min
Friday: 5-factor (plus soccer in the evenings once that starts....SO probably no run)
Saturday: 5-factor + run = 1hr.
Sunday: COMPLETELY OFF
I'm DETERMINED that I can shed this weight. I just have to DO it. SO we'll start with the workout and then work on the food. (There are a LOT of cookies in this house right now - I don't think I'm ready to just throw them out.... *sigh*)
WISH ME LUCK and if you want to JOIN me...leave me a message - it's easier with back-up!!
"Girlie Wisdom"
I got another silly e-mail from the mommy the other day, that made me smile. :) This one I've weeded through and am posting the 'on-topic' little laughs.
Enjoy!
- One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 lbs.
- The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.
- I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knickers.
- Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2 sizes!
- Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like...'You know sometimes I forget to eat!' .....Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name and my keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!
- I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!
Enjoy!
- One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 lbs.
- The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.
- I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knickers.
- Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2 sizes!
- Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like...'You know sometimes I forget to eat!' .....Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name and my keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!
- I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!
Conquering Fear
So, is that my longest hiatus yet? I'm not sure.
I'll admit this whole not-being-in-school is taking some getting used to, and for the past couple of weeks I think I've been busier than I was when I was in classes! OY!
AND I'll admit, I got my first "boring" vote on the LAST post, which I figured was less than interesting at the time, but seeing it there someone actually CLICKED on the 'boring' option...... oy oy oy.
So with how insanely busy I've been with less-than-interesting things I figured blogging more boring blah blah blah was something both my readers and (humiliated) I did not need.
I'm back today, though, so hopefully you find this interesting... ;) hahaha
A while ago I alluded to an opportunity I had to face one of my biggest fears via participation in a study at school. The study is being done by one of my TAs who is working towards her Masters and is, well, slightly less than un-invasive.
Initially when approached about doing the study I found some flimsy reason why I couldn't do it and said 'no,' but knew that Mi was a participant. It took some work but Mi finally whittled me down to the point where upon seeing my TA again in a new class I couldn't BEAR to say no - there was absolutely no reason for me to NOT do the study barring my insane...paranoia. And I'm a tough cookie - no reason to be so scared.
So, finally, it's a go. I'm in. All in. I'm having a meeting with the TA to discuss my in-ness. During the meeting I'm assuring her I'm all in while covertly trying to persuade her I'm somehow broken and she doesn't really want me in her trials.... "oh, it says here if you have a history of fainting or dizziness you shouldn't participate - I passed out getting up one morning just for kicks, dunno why. And I passed out after giving birth when I got up to to to the washroom. And once when I was a kid and hadn't had breakfast and was wearing a really heavy dress and my mom was blow-drying my hair and I felt like I was going to puke I passed out...."
I think all I managed to do was scare the poor girl into thinking she might need to have 911 on super-speed dial for my trial, but she didn't seem swayed to letting me out of my commitment. *sigh*
(WARNING: Boys - this next bit is about women's troubles....head's up!)
So to start my participation I e-mail her the first day of my period. We do that twice, and figure an approximate length of my cycle, estimate my next anticipated start-date (it's SO WEIRD to have that in your calendar - I should have done this YEARS ago!).
Okay, e-mail. I can handle e-mail.
At the onset of my second cycle I'm given a little duckie thermometer and a chart - I'm to wake up every morning and immediately take my temperature. We're measuring to see if my body's temperature fluctuates depending on where I'm at in my cycle. So I do that for a month. Yay.
Then I get contact from the TA. Time to schedule the first trial, which happens 2-5 days after onset of your period. Uh oh. That's like, next week. That's CLOSE. We schedule for Tuesday, expecting day 1 to be Saturday.
Saturday comes and goes.
Sunday comes....and ALMOST goes, but not quite. My period comes. Oh, crap. I have to do this trial. I have to do this trial on TUESDAY. Oh someone shoot me now.
With the arrival of my period comes the arrival of step two in the trial - urine sampling! Oh YAY! From day 1 'till day-it-feels-like-forever I pee in a cup every morning first thing in the morning. First pee. But that's not the best part - you have to pee a bit NOT in the cup and THEN pee in the cup. Have to clear out all the overnight disgustingness. 'Cause pee by itself isn't disgusting, apparently. You get up, stumble to the bathroom, fiddle with a bag full of like, 30 urine-sampling cups, sit down with the correctly-numbered cup, pee, practice your kegel exercises and STOP peeing, place cup in pee-stream-catching position, pee some more, stop peeing, remove cup, and then FINALLY aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........
Urine sampling must be SO much easier for men.
Tuesday. Tuesday's the BIG day. It's my trial day. I get up in the morning, get showered, and Mr. Man, the saint that he is, helps me prepare for my upcoming adventure. (I would NOT have been able to participate if not for him - he's the most amazing man on the planet, I swear).
I got to school. I got hooked up to wires, my skin was burned to stimulate sweating to measure something or other (I 'maxed out' the test, and am the only subject to have done so - is that something to be proud of? I'm a super-dee-duper-sweater?? I guess we take what we can get, eh?) my resting VO2 (amount of oxygen your body absorbs just chillaxin')... I don't even remember. Then off to the washroom to change into my swimsuit and back to be hooked up to every electrode on campus!! I had electrodes on my foot, two on my leg, one on my belly, arm, hand, neck, a probe thingie in my ear for my temperature, and a probe...*ahem* also to measure CORE temperature (the SCARIEST and most uncomfortable part of the experience BY FAR), a little sweat-collector cap thingie GLUED to my forehead, the VO2 mask on over it all.... there were more wires coming out of and off of my body than I ever dreamed possible in my worst nightmares, and this is something I've literally had nightmares about. OY!
THEN, I'm lifted off the ground in this weird harness thing and lowered into a tank onto a stationary bicycle.
From there on in, piece of cake. Get through a 30 minute under-water-cycling workout (it was supposed to be 20 minutes but like the freak-of-nature that I am my sweating rate spiked when it was supposed to plateau so I had to go another 10 minutes!)
THEN I got to watch my favourite movie while 'lounging' in the pool, waiting to freeze to the point where I was shivering. WHICH I'm happy to say never happened. hahaha YAY being a freak!! (We think next time I need to be slightly more submerged than I was for most of the 2 hours before they gave up and shut off the movie).
And THAT is that!! I have to go in again when I'm ovulating...which I guess should be relatively soon. But I SURVIVED once so have like, zero qualms about going again! I can DO hard things, right Blue Belle??
Not QUITE so afraid of the poking and prodding. At least not today.....
I'll admit this whole not-being-in-school is taking some getting used to, and for the past couple of weeks I think I've been busier than I was when I was in classes! OY!
AND I'll admit, I got my first "boring" vote on the LAST post, which I figured was less than interesting at the time, but seeing it there someone actually CLICKED on the 'boring' option...... oy oy oy.
So with how insanely busy I've been with less-than-interesting things I figured blogging more boring blah blah blah was something both my readers and (humiliated) I did not need.
I'm back today, though, so hopefully you find this interesting... ;) hahaha
A while ago I alluded to an opportunity I had to face one of my biggest fears via participation in a study at school. The study is being done by one of my TAs who is working towards her Masters and is, well, slightly less than un-invasive.
Initially when approached about doing the study I found some flimsy reason why I couldn't do it and said 'no,' but knew that Mi was a participant. It took some work but Mi finally whittled me down to the point where upon seeing my TA again in a new class I couldn't BEAR to say no - there was absolutely no reason for me to NOT do the study barring my insane...paranoia. And I'm a tough cookie - no reason to be so scared.
So, finally, it's a go. I'm in. All in. I'm having a meeting with the TA to discuss my in-ness. During the meeting I'm assuring her I'm all in while covertly trying to persuade her I'm somehow broken and she doesn't really want me in her trials.... "oh, it says here if you have a history of fainting or dizziness you shouldn't participate - I passed out getting up one morning just for kicks, dunno why. And I passed out after giving birth when I got up to to to the washroom. And once when I was a kid and hadn't had breakfast and was wearing a really heavy dress and my mom was blow-drying my hair and I felt like I was going to puke I passed out...."
I think all I managed to do was scare the poor girl into thinking she might need to have 911 on super-speed dial for my trial, but she didn't seem swayed to letting me out of my commitment. *sigh*
(WARNING: Boys - this next bit is about women's troubles....head's up!)
So to start my participation I e-mail her the first day of my period. We do that twice, and figure an approximate length of my cycle, estimate my next anticipated start-date (it's SO WEIRD to have that in your calendar - I should have done this YEARS ago!).
Okay, e-mail. I can handle e-mail.
At the onset of my second cycle I'm given a little duckie thermometer and a chart - I'm to wake up every morning and immediately take my temperature. We're measuring to see if my body's temperature fluctuates depending on where I'm at in my cycle. So I do that for a month. Yay.
Then I get contact from the TA. Time to schedule the first trial, which happens 2-5 days after onset of your period. Uh oh. That's like, next week. That's CLOSE. We schedule for Tuesday, expecting day 1 to be Saturday.
Saturday comes and goes.
Sunday comes....and ALMOST goes, but not quite. My period comes. Oh, crap. I have to do this trial. I have to do this trial on TUESDAY. Oh someone shoot me now.
With the arrival of my period comes the arrival of step two in the trial - urine sampling! Oh YAY! From day 1 'till day-it-feels-like-forever I pee in a cup every morning first thing in the morning. First pee. But that's not the best part - you have to pee a bit NOT in the cup and THEN pee in the cup. Have to clear out all the overnight disgustingness. 'Cause pee by itself isn't disgusting, apparently. You get up, stumble to the bathroom, fiddle with a bag full of like, 30 urine-sampling cups, sit down with the correctly-numbered cup, pee, practice your kegel exercises and STOP peeing, place cup in pee-stream-catching position, pee some more, stop peeing, remove cup, and then FINALLY aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........
Urine sampling must be SO much easier for men.
Tuesday. Tuesday's the BIG day. It's my trial day. I get up in the morning, get showered, and Mr. Man, the saint that he is, helps me prepare for my upcoming adventure. (I would NOT have been able to participate if not for him - he's the most amazing man on the planet, I swear).
I got to school. I got hooked up to wires, my skin was burned to stimulate sweating to measure something or other (I 'maxed out' the test, and am the only subject to have done so - is that something to be proud of? I'm a super-dee-duper-sweater?? I guess we take what we can get, eh?) my resting VO2 (amount of oxygen your body absorbs just chillaxin')... I don't even remember. Then off to the washroom to change into my swimsuit and back to be hooked up to every electrode on campus!! I had electrodes on my foot, two on my leg, one on my belly, arm, hand, neck, a probe thingie in my ear for my temperature, and a probe...*ahem* also to measure CORE temperature (the SCARIEST and most uncomfortable part of the experience BY FAR), a little sweat-collector cap thingie GLUED to my forehead, the VO2 mask on over it all.... there were more wires coming out of and off of my body than I ever dreamed possible in my worst nightmares, and this is something I've literally had nightmares about. OY!
THEN, I'm lifted off the ground in this weird harness thing and lowered into a tank onto a stationary bicycle.
From there on in, piece of cake. Get through a 30 minute under-water-cycling workout (it was supposed to be 20 minutes but like the freak-of-nature that I am my sweating rate spiked when it was supposed to plateau so I had to go another 10 minutes!)
THEN I got to watch my favourite movie while 'lounging' in the pool, waiting to freeze to the point where I was shivering. WHICH I'm happy to say never happened. hahaha YAY being a freak!! (We think next time I need to be slightly more submerged than I was for most of the 2 hours before they gave up and shut off the movie).
And THAT is that!! I have to go in again when I'm ovulating...which I guess should be relatively soon. But I SURVIVED once so have like, zero qualms about going again! I can DO hard things, right Blue Belle??
Not QUITE so afraid of the poking and prodding. At least not today.....
