Reporting In

Well, I'm sure you've all noticed (all like, three of you who actually read this little blog of mine....and when I say I'm sure you've noticed I really mean I'm sure this is so far off all your radars and unimportant that no one's noticed.... hahaha) BUT I've had a HORRID two weeks with running. OY!! This past week and the one before each I only got ONE run in (not including a soccer game both weeks) and only managed to squeeze a measly 5K out each time. And I wasn't really breaking any personal best times with those 5Ks, either.

If you DID read my last post you may have discerned that it's been a wee bit harried around here of late (thanks EVERYONE for your concern - WE GOT SOME HELP and have more coming!! hahaha YAY!) and just all over the place and OY OY OY!! (Someone asked me once if I'm Jewish...I'm not. I just LOVE that word - it so very often describes EXACTLY how I'm feeling! hahaha)

Anyway, in the middle of all that oy there just hasn't been running.

And there's been EATING. Oh my GOSH has there been eating. EVERYthing.

It's like, I'm a stress-eater but while I'm in the middle of it I can't see that's what's happening. I can't see that I'm stressed while I'm stuffing 16 cups of caramel popcorn down my throat after all but two of the seven+ people I prepared it for for our book club meeting (yes yes yes, I know. Another STUPENDOUSLY nerdy thing I do - I'm in a book club) didn't show up to eat it... and the ring pops I bought as "party favours" for them (it was on theme!!)....and all the nachos and salsa-dip (oh my gosh, it's SO GOOD)....(by the way, I was really put out that no one came to my month's meeting - the three of us who DID meet had a BLAST but Mr. Man and I practically killed ourselves getting the house and food and everything ready and then no one came!! GAH!! People, RSVP!!! Oh-mi-GOSH RSVP!!! Do your inviters a HUGE favour and just TELL THEM ahead of time if you're planning to attend or not! If you like them at ALL, in the SLIGHTEST LET THEM KNOW IF YOU'RE COMING OR NOT!! Otherwise, besides being extraordinarily rude, it's unfair to the would/could be hosts. SERIOUSLY! Okay...whoa...are we on a tangent??) What else have I eaten lately?? I guess more what HAVEN'T I eaten lately????

I feel fat. I hate that feeling. Or, this feeling. Whatever. Fat is not a good feeling. Regardless of whether or not you (or I, in this case) actually LOOK fat, FEELING fat is the actual problem.

Anyway, so this week, I plan to be back on track. I don't know how we're going to make it happen, but it will happen. Expect to see my weekly run tally on the sidebar there saying something OTHER that just 5K by the end of the week (I HAVE to get back on this horse or I'll lose all my hard-earned training!! GAH!!) - in fact, I will plan RIGHT NOW to run 10K once this week. So the counter should say at least 15K by the end of the week - that's a minimum of two runs. Plus soccer.

And the food....we'll tackle that one again in a bit. Just "eating better" and all that mushy garbage doesn't really work for me - it's not tangible or drastic enough for me. I'm a little too.....well, I don't really even know what too I am, but I'm too something for airy-fairy I'll-just-eat-less-and-or-better type stuff to really work. I don't have the willpower for something so loose, you know??

I'm going to do a run in the fall with Steph (who just blasted her previous personal best for a half-marathon out of the WATER today with 1:43- HOLY FREAK and CONGRATULATIONS, GIRL!) - we/I just have to pick one and get training for it. And then watch her fly away from me as soon as the 'gun' goes off... hahaha

AND...that's that for now. I think I'm going to go check to see that Little Miss is in her bed and aSLEEP, and then I'm going to read a bit ("Dracula" by Bram Stoker - fantastic and horrifying all at the same time! hahaha I read it once before....but now the whole chick-vampires-feed-on-kids bit is much much much more disturbing than I recall it being first-time through; I think I love Little Miss too much!), and then I'M going to go to sleep. Maybe I'll go get some ice cream first so I can be digesting something and burning calories in bed....

JUST KIDDING! ;)

Tactless, thy name be Bravo.

OKAY. So I've been DYING to share this with you since it happened last week but as much as I love the blog it's definitely NOT been a priority of late. Which MAY be the problem, actually....

Last Friday I had a soccer game, as I do now every Friday 'till the end of the summer. I LOVE soccer. And, relatively speaking, I'm good. I mean, I'm no Beckham by any means, but TWO weeks ago I was easily one of if not the best on the field. (Changes week to week - depends on how ON the game I am...)

Well this past week I started and played the first half like CRAP. I was HORRID. It was awful. It's not fun when you play like a bum. Regardless of the score if I personally am playing like a reject then I FEEL like a reject and I don't want to play. It's embarassing. I'm better than a reject-player so I should play better than a reject-player. Does that sound stuck up?

Second half, I was AWESOME. I was SO much better. I was on my game, I didn't let anyone through, I knocked someone over (always a perk, and ALWAYS by 'accident' as in my PURPOSE was not to knock the gal over but to get the ball).... I was better. It was great.

So, AFTER the game there was all this hubbub going on with the family because Bravo, my darling dearest brother, is moving out of his house 1.1km from my house, back in with our parents. And Friday night was a moving-stuff-out night. SO after the game we head over to help and grab some stuff he's getting rid of that's perfectly wonderful and really wanted to come live at my house (like some fantastic end-tables for beside my couch - yay!!)

Somewhere in the moving-stuff-out event Bravo and I got chatting and I was giving him the run-down of the game and how awesome I'm playing and how much I love soccer and WHAT A DIFFERENCE RUNNING has made in my game - 'cause let me tell ya' - OY!! WHAT a difference!! hahaha INCREDIBLE. I LOVE it. I'm the oldest I've ever been while being a player and I have the best stamina I've ever had while on the field.

So with THIS news, that my hours and hours and hours of vigorous training and running and just wowzers-that's-a-lot-of-exercise has actually had an EFFECT somewhere Bravo says "well that's good, at least, that even though your size is staying the same you're seeing some benefits from all that exercise!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

EVEN THOUGH I'm just as FAT as when I STARTED it's good to know I can PLAY better!!

Ohmigosh I almost died. I reviewed the conversation with Mr. Man later and laughed - he tried desperately to put a positive spin on it for me and then finally relented - there really is NOT another way to take that, is there? TOO TOO TOO funny!!!

SO, Bravo. I've taken that as a challenge. I WILL get smaller, gosh darn it!! You just may not NOTICE 'cause you see me too darned much! ;) hahaha

Consequentially MONDAY I went for a good run outside, 6.68km - I ran a whole new route, kinda' spur of the moment - I got to the fork in the road and I HAD planned to go right to a point and turn around and come back, but I last-second decided to go LEFT and do a loop instead - it was great!!

TUESDAY I went for a leisurely 5km on Optimus Prime.

TODAY I did Yogilates while Mr. Man earned 30+ Wii Fit credits - it was kinda' fun to workout 'together' - he used that side of the room and I used that side [pointing].

I FINALLY weighed myself - it's been ages. Ha. And, actually, that information is on the WiiFit. ALL I know is it's up 4.6lbs from LAST time which was like, 73 days ago. SOOOOOOOOooooo... I have NO idea how I've been doing 'cause I haven't been monitoring my weight or my size or whatever. LOOKS like I've gone a little backwards, so let's fix that, shall we?? Prove Bravo wrong... muahaha!!

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!!

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.

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.... ;)

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!!