Bring it on, Fates! I'm still here!

So I've decided that when I tempt the fates with one of my posts i.e. my last one, they ALL descend upon me and just have at it! HOLY COW!! WHAT a second week of the semester!! Mr. Man asked me this past week if life is ever going to let up - we could really use a break. Like a real break. Not like Christmas break, which we'd been counting on, with illness and broken-down-vehicles and no time to rest, but a REAL break.

Anyway, if I'd found the time I was desperately searching for during the week to write here I'd have entertained you all with the latest tales of our woes, BUT it's another new week, we're STILL HERE (HA! Take THAT oh-conspiring-ones! That's right, you're going to have to BRING IT ON to beat US!), amazingly, still together, still in love, still enamoured with Little Miss, still in business, still FIGHTING!!

I find myself repeating over and over Blue Belle's mantra: 'I can do hard things!'

SO, HERE, finally are my SMART goals (SMART: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, with a Time limit) for the semester as completed for my 'Training Principles' class:

Cardiorespiratory Endurance
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to run 5K in 26 minutes. Current time 30-31 minutes. Would also like to train to be able to run 10K in one session. (This is prep for 5K race in Mississauga in May)
Will run more regularly (3-4 times per week) adjusting speed and incline of treadmill accordingly, to increase.

Muscular Strength
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to do one one-armed push-up. Currently not able to fully complete any.
Will work on two-armed pushups working toward single armed push-ups 2-3 times per week including holding myself up with one hand in plank position, working towards ability to flex and extend elbow while holding body in plank position. Will also regularly practice yoga and pilates to aid completion of goal.

Muscular Endurance
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to do (at least) 50 push-ups in a row. Currently able to do: 16
As with Muscular Strength goal will work on push-ups and one-armed push ups, and regularly practice yoga and pilates to help.

Flexibility
By the end of the semester I aim to be able to sit and reach the heel of my hands to my toes. Currently able to reach mid-fingers to toes.
Will 3 times a week practice yoga and pilates to encourage increased mobility and flexibility in joints, including pilates and yoga poses that target reaching hands to & past feet.

Body Composition
By the end of the semester I aim to have lost the rest of my pregnancy “fluff”. Will aim to lose 10 pounds but main measure will be pant-size (may not actually lose weight if muscle mass increases); will fit size 8.
Will accomplish this by working on above-listed goals and adjusting diet to reduce fast-food and dessert intake.

Okay, got it? THOSE are the goals. That's what we're working for this semester. Keep checking - I'll be posting about my progress!!

At SOME point last week...I forget when, I WiiFitted myself for:
Weight: 168lbs
BMI: 27...I think just 27. I'd have to double-check and/or do the math and I don't wanna do the math right now. ;)

Gap 10

Sooo I didn't get too much when we were shopping - we had the entire family along with us and apparently the jelly doughnut is shrinking so quickly (YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY) that Mom suggested it sort of silly to buy me a whole bunch of new things while I'm in transition-mode. And I whole-heartedly agree. I found some things I would really really love to own but on the off chance that I really AM shrinking I couldn't justify spending good money on them, hoping they would be too big in a few months or even next year. (Ask Mr. Man and/or Mom - when I get an article of clothing I keep it FOREVER. I'm pretty good at resurrecting clothes from high school....)

BUT I did acquire a few new things so I at least feel like I can get dressed in the mornings - one pair of jeans and three tops, so now I have two pairs of jeans that actually fit me "properly" as opposed to when I wear Mr. Man's (which I LOVE to do). And let me tell you how AWESOME it was to buy my one new pair of jeans:

We were in the Gap, which apparently, while I was pregnant, changed its whole style. WEIRD, but okay. So I'm looking at jeans, kinda' laughing internally like, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, but I found a pair that I liked and figured, oh, what the heck. I grabbed a size ten knowing full well it would be too small and I wouldn't be able to cram my thunder-thighs through the legs and headed off to the fitting room. I stripped off my one pair of jeans that I LOVE and reached down to my feet with the too-small pair. And pulled one leg over my foot and up my leg, waiting for the moment when the pant-leg would get too snug and I wouldn't be able to get my hands up any further.....

IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!! I pulled on BOTH legs without ANY trouble, stood up, DID the jeans up, and stared open-mouthed into the mirror. THEY FIT!!!!

So, I know I know, size 10 isn't really anything to get TOO excited about. It's a double-digited number, still. But it's at LEAST a size smaller than I think I've ever been at the Gap, and it's a GAP size 10! It's not old-frumpy-ladies-r-us size 10, but GAP size 10.

So we bought the pants. Which turn out to be actually BAGGY in my legs, and leave a little room around the "waist".

Maybe this dream of 8 is attainable after all, even post-Little-Miss.....

YESTERDAY:
Ran 5K at school. I THINK it only took me 30 minutes - I forgot my watch and so was relying on the wall-clocks which sadly are not close enough to the track for me to be definitively sure, but I THINK it was only 30 minutes. I'm totally open to the fact that it may have been a minute or two (or three) longer because I am NOT a fast runner (ask Mi), but I'm hoping that with the exhaustion I was feeling and the fact that I've been running for a few weeks now that I've managed to shave that extra two or three minutes off my time and it really was only half an hour.

TODAY:
Nothing yet, but I have a date for a butt-kicking on the track this afternoon with Mi for another 5K. And if I'm really lucky I'll find some time after classes tonight to squeeze in a much-needed yogilates session, but it might not happen. Will report on that later!

Body Mass Index Bunk

BMI has got to be one of the stupidest things - I don't know WHO dreamed it up, though I'm sure I could find out fairly easily - but OHMIGOSH what was he (I guess it could have been a she....though it seems difficult to believe a woman could be that out to lunch)ON?!

So BMI is supposed to be an indication of your...fat status? What would you call that, anyway? There are four categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese, and your assignment into a category basically defines your level of health.

RIDICULOUS RIDICULOUS RIDICULOUS!! According to BMI most, probably all (the successful ones, anyway) body builders are obese. Football players are off the scale. World-class gymnasts are often classed unhealthily underweight. And on and on and on.....

Now, of course, I'm listing some seriously elite athlete types here. But the whole BMI sucks thing is actually true for a HUGE number of us regular types!! I, for example, have rather large legs, even underneath my femoral fat ;). My calves are hard as rock but I can't do up a pair of hooker boots without busting the zipper to save my soul. My BMI is less than two points from obese. What about a skinny person? It can work both ways - know any skinny skinny girls we all just hate 'cause they can eat whatever they want and still look killer in skinny-leg jeans? Have you ever seen them in shorts? Skinny skinny girls with serious cankles?? BMI may put them in the underweight or normal category, but if you were to actually look at the percentages of their lean body mass versus fat mass they'd be overweight.

How do you fix BMI? Somehow there needs to be a way to account for body composition. There's not with BMI as it stands. That's that.

Now, I'M recording my BMI for a bunch of reasons. One, it's Wii Fit's main measure. Two, I'm interested for my own sake to see just HOW thin I'd have to be to get myself into the "normal" category. Three, hoping that anyone who's stuck with it as a measure can see my regular-joe case of it being garbage and look for something better (ask your doctor for a body composition test - let me know if you want a list of what's out there!). AND there's a bunch of other reasons why I record it, but that's all I feel like inundating you with for today.

Sorry I haven't bothered to back up my claims with any scholarly anything - I'm feeling lazy at the moment. I can pull out the books, if you'd like verification, though - just leave a comment and let me know!!!

TODAY
Walked Girlie to day camp, walked to the path and I oh-so-can run the whole path and almost all the way back without stopping to talk to old people! (I wasn't being antisocial - there was no one on the trail this morning!) Soooo...walked for about 35 minutes and ran for 25.
45 minutes yogilates.

Wii Fit Measures:
Weight - 177.7 lbs
BMI - 28.56