The Anti-Stress

So, remember (or do you?) how a little while ago I said something about how I've realized that I like, NEED to run?? Did I say that? I think I said that. hahaha Maybe?? Anyway.

Today, was a great day, which maybe I'll write about some other time, but it was a great day. Little Miss and I did the 1.5 hour drive to visit and play with her three cousins and Aunties today and had SUCH a great day.

Then we got in the car for the 1.5 hour drive back home.

By the time I got home I had completely forgotten about my lovely day with my lovely nieces and lovely sisters-in-law, vegging, eating cookies (whoops....), playing.... I had perma-scowl on. Even when I focused on relaxing my face muscles I had this...PRESSURE in my forehead.

Mr. Man asked how the day was. All I could get out was...pressure...need to run....

But then I crashed and felt too exhausted.

And Mr. Man said, it's not too late to run. You don't get to run as often as you'd like. You should go for a run.

So I did.

Within FIVE MINUTES of my time with Optimus Prime I felt ALLLLLLLLLLLL better. ALL better.

I DO remember having a great day! I DON'T remember how horrid I felt being whined and screamed and cried at for an hour and a half. GREAT day. I feel good.

Thanks, Mr. Man!

Anything else? Please, just pile it on.

Optimus Prime is broken.

Good day, anyone?

HOORAY! FINALLY the new layout! Do you love it? I LOVE it. Obviously, we still have some kinks to work out (i.e. we need to make the blog title smaller so it FITS over there on the left and you can see that it says "Confessions" and not "Confession"...I confess to fitness-wrongdoing too often for this to be a single confession!!) BUT you should get the idea of the awesomeness. Next week Mr. Man will be back to working what are regular work-hours for HIM so we'll finally be back to some "normalcy" around here and we might see each other on occasion!!

THAT and the kitchen is FINALLY starting to shape up nicely - hooray!! Mom came over yesterday afternoon and just went wild helping me. Today Little Miss "helped" some more, and hopefully by the end of tomorrow we'll have it ALL done. Now to just finish that bookcase in the basement....

AND Mr. Man bought me...an early back-to-school/birthday present:

WHICH I'm currently typing on. Or at least TRYING to type on....if this post gets published with oodles of extra typos tonight...SORRY! I think I'm catching them all, though (yeah, right) because typing on this teeny keyboard with shift and enter in such weird spots (relative to my previous, and comparatively enormous, Gateway relic) blocked by / and \ respectively.... and when I reach for 'backspace' I keep hitting '='.... ANYWAY, he ordered it YESTERDAY (from TigerDirect.ca - GREAT website for geeks and those of us who love 'em!!) paid $4 for super-slow regular delivery, and it arrived today. CRAZY, eh? He thought we'd be lucky to have it by September, and now I have all this time to get used to it before I have to use it for note-taking! TOO cool! And it's SO FRIGGIN SMALL I can literally put it in my purse. 'Course, it helps that I don't have the daintiest purse on the planet, but still!! OH and I almost forgot - mine's way COOLER than in the picture - it's red. [drool]

ALSO tonight, I got Little Miss to be with little struggle for a change - she just needed some Mommy-snuggles which I am only oh-too-happy to give her, and then went for a run on Optimus Prime - BOOM baby there's the week's 10K!! HaHA!! Honestly, I didn't think I'd get it done. Even when I started to run tonight I was like, there's no WAY I can run that long!! BUT knowing there are a few people keeping tabs on me...I didn't want to disappoint!!

That's the first time I've run 10km since school ended. (Oh, Mi - how my training [and I!!] misses you!). Took 69:12. Yup, that's right. I'm a speed-daemon.

Well, this turned into a nice braggy, boring post - hahaha - so thanks for sticking it out to the end!! I'll try to come up with something fascinating or hilarious again soon, I promise! :)

Back to basics

Okay, so, the Bravo-challenge is on!! hahaha We busted out the WiiFit yesterday, as I mentioned, and so bright and early this morning I weighed myself again for our challenge updates.

Yeah, somewhere, magically as I slept I lost 3.3lbs.

Do you see why I hate WEIGHT as a measure of fatness or fitness or whatever? It's so....NOT! hahaha BUT I DID read relatively recently in 'Women's Health' (obviously the be-all-and-end-all; forget what my professors teach me, if it's not in 'Women's Health' it CAN'T be true! hahaha Ohmigosh I'm KIDDING folks - geeze!!) that people who DO weigh themselves every day(ish) lose whatever-percentage more weight than those who DON'T because it's that CONSTANT reminder or something like that. They backed it up with some study... let me know if you want a more succinct description and I'll see if I can track it down.... ;)

SO, back to the weighing-game.

TODAY: 167.3 lbs Just glancing back at my previous WiiFit stats it looks like my lowest was 165.3, so I'm only up 2 lbs in however-the-heck-long it's been. Meh. There could be worse things.
ALSO today ran 5km on Optimus Prime after Little Miss went to bed. Mr. Man WiiFitted it, too - two days up for him! yay!

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!!

I love moleskin

Before I get into today's actual post I just have to acknowledge and THANK everyone for the concern over my poor poor feet and the ginormous blisters I've developed! I had Steph look it up in a book, my mother-in-law find and forward how-to-treat-and-prevent websites (this one, and this one) - ALL of which information I will admit I found helpful. APPARENTLY you get blisters if your shoes are too tight - who knew?! I figured if I was getting blisters it meant my shoes weren't tied tight ENOUGH because there'd be extra room to slide around....yeah, that means after getting the first set of blisters LAST week I've been tying my laces like vice-grips.

"...here's your sign...."

*sigh*

ALSO - I thought if I maybe taped 'em up I'd be able to run some more this week instead of sitting on my tookus (read: butt) waiting for them to get better BUT when I was out erranding with Little Miss yesterday I FORGOT to go to the drugstore! I know, I know. I'm all about winning prizes for schmarts this week. BUT my darling dearest Mr. Man stopped off on his way home from work, talked to the pharmacist, and I've now been introduced to the BEST thing EVER - moleskin!

OH how I love moleskin!! It's just this sticky-soft thing you stick to you - I put it right over my (popped) blisters (it DOES suggest on the packaging you not adhere it directly over top of blisters JUST so you know), put on my socks, and laced my shoes like a NORMAL person instead of akin to a clamp - NO PAIN! I didn't even FEEL my blisters! BOOM BAM baby! Oh, it was great. I mean, as great as running 5K on a treadmill in the school gym can be.... ;) hahaha

I don't know how fast I went, though, 'cause part way through my hand slipped and I hit the 'STOP' button which...yeah. Helps with my whole being SMRT this week. hahaha OH well.

OH, and my leg's been bugging me lately, so I did yogilates last night - how long has THAT been, eh? I do still love it and look forward to making more time for it...later. hahaha After finals, maybe.

I forget if I wanted to write about anything else today - great, eh? GEEZE!! I think the moleskin being amazing was the main thing...and thanks for the concern and help!! :)

Speaking of concern and help - aren't mommies WONDERFUL?? I love mine. :) *sigh*

I DID it.

I finally ran a full 10 kilometers today.

I gave myself a set of the most wicked blisters I've ever SEEN - I have to find out what I'm not doing right with my poor feet - am I not tying my shoes right? Bad socks? Not enough sock? TOO much sock?

Maybe if I DON'T figure it out I'll just wear my feet down and build up some B-E-A-YOOOtiful calluses so I can run the full distance without limping at the end....

Anyway, I did 10. Took....I think Mi said 1:05:29. WHICH isn't BAD seeing how when I first STARTED running it took me 38 minutes to run 5 sooooo.... I'll take it.

I'm going to have to work to get that time under 1:00, though, eventually - I don't think I can handle running for over an hour all that regularly - it feels like FOREVER!! I've officially decided marathoners are sick-freak masochists... ;)

Triglyceride Oxidation

I learned something kinda' cool yesterday in exercise physiology that I thought you lovely folks might find interesting. We've been learning about/reviewing the adaptations the body experiences as a result of different types of training, i.e. strength training (any resistance exercises: weight-training, pilates, calisthenics - the stuff that you do to make you stronger - super-dee-duper important, by the way - we should ALL be doing it) and endurance training (basically aerobic exercise: running, jogging, swimming, cycling - the long drawn-out exercise that makes you want to shoot yourself half-way through). Specifically yesterday we talked about endurance training and I found the most interesting thing about it is that with training your body adapts such that it grows better and more dependent on oxidation of triglycerides to fuel endurance exercise.

Did you catch that?? ;)

BASICALLY the more cardio training you do over time the more your body is going to burn FAT to fuel your cardio session as opposed to carbohydrate. A marathon runner's body uses more fat stores to fuel a run than a (previously) sedentary, fat person.

CRAZY, no?? SO...make sure you have some endurance training in your regime if you're trying to lose some of the jiggle! hahaha

It's been a busy week - it's Friday already. I'm not as far along with my homework as I had hoped, but I'm not behind...yet. I got one assignment handed in yesterday and got started on the next; unfortunately my poor brain is screaming for a break and isn't churning out this 10 page paper on obesity (I may have some more interesting things to write about soon!) very quickly.

BUT, Little Miss is away at daycare today for a field-trip to the Sugar Bush to learn all about Maple Syrup production, so I find myself with a few extra hours than budgeted for - hopefully (once I get the heck off blogger!) I'll get a good amount of work done.

This week, Mi and I tackled a 10K run on the treadmills at school. UNFORTUNATELY I'm a bit of an IDIOT and appear to have not taken the time to really properly tie my shoes so by about 5K my feet were getting really uncomfortable. By 8K I couldn't run properly anymore due to the enormous blisters I'd managed to give myself so had to stop. It was really disappointing not to finish the 10, especially for such a silly reason!! But I did run 8, and then walked the last 2 - walking didn't rub on the feet in the same way, thank goodness!!

That's all of note, really, I think. We played an AWESOME game of soccer last night, which was a blast - kudos to all who came out and played.

OH yeah, and I weighed myself on the WiiFit, finally, this morning:
WEIGHT: 165.3lbs
BMI: 26.57

JUST as a reminder - when we started this thing I was at:
WEIGHT: 179.5lbs
BMI: 28.84
SO it's been slow going, but it's been going. 165.3 is the lowest I've hit so far, so new milestone for me! Hooray!!

Okay, time to write this paper! Wish me luck! :D

Back, and faster than ever!

Well, we're BACK! And it's finally time to tell you all about it! I know, I know. You're just as excited as I am by the whole thing, I know.

Actually, we've been back for a few days now, but this is the first time I've found to tell you about it, SO I have to tell you ALL about Ottawa *ahem* I mean, last week's exercising ;) aaaaaand how it's been going (GANGBUSTERS!) since we got back.

FIRST I just have to say, I don't know WHERE the camera with my pictures went. I just went to grab it so I can upload wonderful photos of my family and I being active in the blistering cold for your enjoyment aaaaaaand it's missing. Incognito. Disparu. I wonder if it got left at my mom's yesterday.... And of course it just FIGURES because I always always always promise photos and never ever ever post them. I'm a bad person. Okay, so now we know, we've accepted it, we can move on.

OTTAWA: Last week, as I said, we went to Ottawa. We left home Sunday afternoon, arrived Sunday night and spent 'till Thursday morning interloping on the fantastic hospitality of one of my favourite it-girls, Ferret-Mama. We had SUCH a good visit and relaxing time, and I will be completely honest - because it was a relatively SHORT stay I didn't even TAKE my workout/running gear with me. I had ample time during the rest of the week to at least maintain my training up until this point so took a few days off!! I know, shocker, right? Can you believe it? I'm a running phenom and I took time OFF?! (Riiiiiiiiiiiiight......phenom....... What's the purpose of this blog again?)

BUT just because I (we - Mr. Man was with me!) didn't 'workout' doesn't mean we spent EVERY day on the couch!! On Monday we wandered (read: WALKED = MOVED = EXERCISE! BOOM baby!) over to the lake and skated (EXERCISE!) along to the Rideau Canal, which was SO much fun, except for the fact that it was cold enough for an entire lake and canal to be frozen solid enough that people skate on it to work . AND Little Miss wasn't a HUGE fan, though she had a great view from her stroller, which took to the ice like it was made for it.

Also Monday was 'Family Day' in Ontario so Ferret-Mama & the Ultimate Boyfriend, Freedom Jackson (HA hahaha), had the day off work so they took us to downtown and we wandered (= exercise!) all over downtown for about an hour and a half and saw a bunch of the (outsides of) sites, took silly tourist pictures, and had a (freezing cold) blast. (Mr. Man and I were definitely the only people in downtown Ottawa on Monday stupid enough to not be wearing mittens - when we left home it was like SPRING so it never occurred to my dumb little brain that I'd need mittens....)

Tuesday we hid from the cold inside and let poor Little Miss sleep off some of the exhaustion she'd built up over the traveling and a couple of late nights.

But WEDNESDAY, again Mr. Man, Little Miss and I hit the lake for some more skating.

See? It's easy to stay 'active' on vacation!! ;) hahaha

SINCE getting back: Thursday night I ran about 20 minutes on Optimus Prime but was (happily) interrupted when my mommy called. (She did offer to call back but I was looking for any excuse 'cause, well, it's me and that's what I do best!)

THEN I got an e-mail from the Drill Sargent, Mi, asking if I was as insane as she is and 'wanted' to meet at school at 8AM to RUN and then STUDY. At SCHOOL. At EIGHT. During my week OFF. WHAT the heck is that girl ON?!?! Psycho.... SO I went up to the school (she was late after sleeping in - HA!!) FOR 8:30 and we ran 5K. In 28:33. Yup, that's right. Twenty-eight minutes and thirty-three seconds. My previous best time? Do you remember? 29:20. I know, I know. I'm a machine.

Today Mi and I had a midterm in our Training Principles class, finished with an hour to spare before our next class, and fit in another 5K run. I got a HORRID stitch part way through but still managed to finish under 29 minutes: 28:45. And also today we did some activity in a lab for another class, but I won't bore you with all that nonsense.

The moral of the story? Go on vacation to bust your best times. ;) hahaha

OH and just quick before I finish - ShopGirl got me on this Twenty-Something-Bloggers site thing. If you happen to be from there and think I'm an idiot, well, I AM but I'm still definitely in the learning curve part of 20SB so be PATIENT with me and I'll get it. I just haven't had time to devote to figuring it out yet... I think I'm supposed to thank people for adding me as a friend? But it all happened while I was away and I missed a lot of it... Okay, that's enough grovelling for now.

I'm the greatest runner in the world!!

(hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Bath Time!

REAL quick 'cause my bath water is running BUT I wanted to let you know that I'm done TWO midterms, which may or may not have gone...okay....hahaha AND then after Mr. Man came home to help Little Miss get to sleep I had a date with Optimus Prime tonight to help get out of the this-day-is-too-long-and-houses-two-midterms-funk I was in. I only did 5 kilometres tonight BUT there it is. Better than nothing. Took me 30 minutes like, on the nose -I was surprised, actually; felt like I was working harder than that. OH well!

Mr. Man is playing video games and admitted he wants to play for a bit so I'm taking a book to the bath to continue the post-midterm chillax. I know, you WISH you were as relaxed as I'm going to be in a few minutes.... ;)

6 and 25

I had the best day on Saturday. It was great. We were supposed to watch Girlie on Saturday but her family's plans changed so we ended up with the day all to ourselves to do absolutely nothing. NOTHING! I can't remember a Saturday in recent history where we've had NOTHING to do. It was fantastic.

And on our day of nothing both Mr. Man and I spent some quality time with Optimus Prime. That's right, folks, Mr. Man ran on my treadmill!! PLEASE let's all give him KUDOS and encourage him to keep going!! GO MR. MAN! GO MR. MAN!! :) (I love you, sweetie!)

AND on Saturday, watching 'P.S. I Love You' (I love running on a treadmill!) I ran SIX kilometers. That's right, six. Not five. Six.

I felt like a superhero when I finished. :)

Okay, and the OTHER thing I wanted to post today because I spent SO much time on it the other night 'cause I'm SO silly and occasionally fill these things out for my unwinding-time, is that 25-random-things-about-yourself list from Facebook. I figured I spent so much time on it and no one's reading it and I feel totally ripped off so I'm posting it HERE too so it gets more exposure. hahaha I'm lame, I know. BUT it will also tell you a little more about ME and since you're here reading...about me..., I thought you might actually be interested. ;) So humour me. ;)

1) I've never ever been anywhere inside Canada outside of Ontario. I've literally driven across the United States, gone to school, vacationed, visited friends...but never in my own country.

2) I am absolutely beyond reason TERRIFIED of 'poking and prodding' – surgery, doctors, rectal thermometers (GAH for a STUDY I'm in!! KILL me now, PLEASE!). I'm as active as I am and I've never conquered tampons without fainting. ;) Surgery on my face this past December put me over the top – it was AWFUL. I'm seriously seriously seriously into 'preventative' medicine just so hopefully I never ever ever ever ever ever ever have to go in for something more serious than my cyst was!

3) I absolutely LOATHE being shushed. I'm a loud person, I know, but 'shhhhhhhh' is so degrading, embarrassing – it like, points out that I have no control over the decibel of my voice and I'm a grown woman for pity's sake! It's humiliating.

4) I almost equally loathe having to repeat myself when I've gone unheard – OBVIOUSLY I did a good job of keeping my voice down for a change, why the HECK can't you give me kudos and LISTEN?!

5) I'm seriously addicted to checking my e-mail. We may need an intervention, soon. I land on Facebook when there's no e-mail (most of the time) to try and quell the urge for a message or response from someone, but usually end up wandering away and coming back in five minutes or so.

6) I'm super-de-duper proud of my blog, http://redlovestomove.blogspot.com, especially when it helps motivate someone else. I'm mortified when I hear a guy has read it! Hahaha But THRILLED for the support at the same time! Go figure.

7) I only have four credits left (= one year) after this semester to finish my undergrad. FINALLY. And then we can move on with our lives. I can't wait.

8) My most favourite thing in the world is my kiddo. I LOVE being a mom. I wish I had more time for it. After school's out....

9) If there's something sweet in front of me and I have one I literally cannot stop. I'll eat cookies or skittles or whatever it is until I feel like I'm going to puke, and then I'll eat more. The trick for me is to not start eating them in the first place....some days (most, recently, actually!) are better than others.

10) I'm absolutely paranoid about my weight/size/appearance at just about every moment of every day. I really don't think you ever FULLY recover from disordered-eating problems.... I've turned down invitations to go out and have fun because I felt too fat that day. Strangely...I felt amazing when I was pregnant... hahaha

11) I always had oodles of guy friends when I was younger and now that I'm a wee bit older and a wee bit really married I find I have a hard time finding the balance between appropriate and inappropriate – I tell Mr. Man EVERYTHING just to be safe – if I ever feel like I have to hide something I'll know I'm over the line. Hopefully. ;)

12) If I weren't LDS I can almost guarantee you I'd never have had any kids. I LOVE being a mom. It was worth all the terrifying poking and prodding and doctors visits a thousand times over. I wonder if I'd have gotten married....

13) I am a terrible gardener. My thumbs are about as far from green as a thumb can get! (What IS the opposite of green?? Red? - THAT'S my problem....red's my favourite!)

14) I'm (usually) a fantastic cook. When I bother. Which is seldom.

15) I despise hot. Except for the inconvenience of snow ie. my car getting stuck, I much much much much muchly prefer winter to summer. You can always add a layer or a blanket or snuggle, but there's only so many layers you can take off...

16) I study kinesiology at school, but started at Brock undeclared before switching to accounting. THEN I found my head (no one in their right mind actually goes through accounting, SERIOUSLY!) and switched to kin. I LOVE my program.

17) I gave birth to Little Miss without any assistance from any medication of any sort. It wasn't as bad as I freaked myself out for and I'm definitely tough enough for that. I don't think it makes me better or worse than anyone, just there it is. I did it!

18) I'm contemplating growing my hair out long again, but figure I need to lose another 10 lbs or so to pull it off properly. Easier day-to-day upkeep as in I can throw it in a ponytail and go!! hahaha And I'm ALWAYS on the go sooooooo........ But I do oh so love my short(er, now) hair.

19) I very very rarely have anything to drink other than water. I prefer water in most cases. Most of the time in all cases, but there are occasions when a root beer just sounds so gooooooood...

20) I really only play the piano at church – if I try to practice at home now Little Miss takes over. She likes to grab my fingers and make me 'play' what she wants to play. I consequently never ever practice. As is evident on Sundays!

21) I can sing. Relatively speaking not a lot of people know that about me – it didn't really come out 'till we came to St. Catharines. I don't remember how it came out down here....when I was the primary music leader I 'couldn't' sing. Huh.

22) I am currently wearing a robe with a towel on my head as accessory. The robe has Tigger and Eeyore on the back. :) I am a walking (well, sitting....) fashion-plate!

23) I'm really really really bad at seeing things outside of the box. When I build with Little Miss's mega blocks, I build 4 walls and that's it. When I'm being creative. Usually it's just a tower. I'm HORRID at pull-these-things-together questions on tests at school. HORRID. I can tell you everything there is to know about something if you give me the something, but if you give me everything I can rarely come up with the something.

24) I spend most of my time wandering/sitting around with this awful burning sensation in my shoulders. It takes more effort to 'relax' my shoulders than to leave them be, and leave them be hurts most of the day.

25) It took me a LOOONG time to fill this out – 25 things is a LOT, even for someone as talented at talking about herself as I am!! WOW! I hope I haven't come across as too narcissistic! :)

(The fact that I wrote it on Facebook and then posted it on the blog probably doesn't help decrease the narcissistic factor... hahaha What can I say?! I am who I am!) ;)

OH YEAH! I almost forgot!! For anyone who actually read to the bottom - yay for you! - I weighed myself on Saturday. Yeah, weight is really a silly measure for this whole...how's my health thing. BUT sadly, it's one of the easiest ways we have.... ANYWAY, I gained 4.9lbs in THREE DAYS. Stupid weight. But I can tell you from the acne on my face that 'Auntie Flow' is on her way soooo... you know? LADIES - the scale is NOT any way to define yourself, okay?? Use it as a MEASURE, not as the be-all-and-end-all of your self-esteem!!

I'm really done now. ;)

Where does the time go?

Okay okay, so the treadmill's up, it's amazing, it's beautiful, it looks like Optimus Prime moved into my office, and I LOVE it.

I've been meaning to take the set-up picture all week and write about my first run and my latest LOWEST WEIGHT ON RECORD ;) BUT where is the TIME?! I can't believe how much time just seems to have FLOWN by this week! WOW!

Anyway, we got the treadmill set up, it's HUGE, but not nearly as huge as the box. It fits in the office, but now the office doesn't fit in the office so well, so we have to work on that. ;) BUT it's fantastic and I love it. It's so pretty!! I ran on it on Friday. Haven't again since 'cause it was a super-super-super busy weekend, BUT hopefully this week will be better.

I just thought I'd let you know that I'm still here and still trying to stay accountable to you.

OH, and that when I weighed myself on WiiFit....the other day.... Thursday, maybe? I forget.... ANYWAY, I was 166.0lbs, which means I'm rid of ALL the Christmas-break weight PLUS an additional .2 lbs, which I will definitely accept. AND 5.5 down since starting ShopGirl's Challenge.

AND on Thursday night at soccer (go CHIMPS!) I ended up playing like, the whole game (at least it felt like it) up in midfield/forward and I scored another goal. Felt good. :)

Okay, that's enough nothing for today. Ciao!

Delivery Day

It's HEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year

Hi there!

I haven't blogged because I haven't exercised. I still haven't, but figured I should let you know what's up. :)

I'm just now, finally, getting this stupid cold up and out of my chest, so should be able to get back at it hopefully this week. Now, of course, because I've put that out into space the rumbly remnants of this stupid cold will hang on forever... I had every intention of running over the Christmas break, buuuuuuuuut.... there we have it.

I would, though I haven't worked out yet (don't worry, I will. It's actually REQUIRED in two of my classes this semester: 'Training Principles', and 'Functional Fitness Assessment & Exercise Prescription' - I'm REALLY looking forward to these classes!!) like to FINALLY give you the rest of the low-down on my super-amazing-awesome Christmas presents!!

FIRST off, I got a gift certificate for a fantastic little runner's shop, where I quickly went to procure a new pair of SHOES!!


Asics GEL-CUMULUS 10

Remember how I had an inkling my runners were a bit too big and the beautiful blisters I managed to give myself?? Yeah, they were SO too big. AMAZING I was previously that inept at running-shoe buying. I can't stress ENOUGH the importance (and absolute PLEASURE) of having a pair of shoes that fits you properly (AHEM Blue Belle!).

SO with the stinking cold I had the whole break (which really just between yesterday and today has seemed to FINALLY vanish) I haven't run with them yet but I've worn them ALL over my mom's house for days on end, and can't wait to hit the track with them tomorrow (right, Mi??) It's going to be like running on clouds....

Okay okay okay, and I know I mentioned my incredibly-awesome-way-too-generous present from Santa and the conspirators (Mom and Mr. Man) - MY TREADMILL!! So after days and days of research, in-store testing, exhaustive questioning of sales staff bargain hunting and finally indecisiveness I was able to narrow my search to two machines. hahaha I could NOT decide from that point, to Mom made the final, executive decision, being the gift-giver, and I am getting....(drum roll, please....)

NordicTrack Elite zi

I'm super stoked. It's got a 3.0 chp motor, 60inch long belt, adjustable cushioning that reduces impact up to 33% as compared to road-running AND is the machine that a relatively negative-on-NordicTrack site reviews as being NordicTrack's best, and ticket back into the treadmill game. AND it's on SALE! hahaha

I won't have it for a while, though, because I hemmed and hawed so long that we didn't get it ordered before Mom left for vacation to Florida , but the plan is to order it pronto when she gets back next week. I'm sure I'll have tonnes to report when I do get it, so be as super excited as I am. :)

If you ever have an inkling to shop for a treadmill, do yourself a HUGE favour and do some research!! In most cases we found sales staff COMPLETELY useless and unhelpful. My decisions were based on going to the stores, seeing the models, the prices, picking what I liked, going home and checking out every review site I could possibly find and comparing them with the manufacturer's claims and on and on and on. By the end of the process I was helping other people in the stores maneuver around the useless sales staff.... So be careful - it's a big purchase and you want a machine that's going to do what you want it to without breaking down a few months in.

Hopefully I go for a run tomorrow on the track at school. Check back and make sure I do, will ya'? ;)

Christmas and the Cold

I have been SO sick this week. It's like my body just completely shut down for a couple days. Of course, it didn't happen until after I packed all my running things in my bag to come to Mom and Dad's for Christmas etc. - WHAT a pain!! Little Miss picked up the cold from goodness knows where, shared it with me, and we shared it quickly through my whole family with the exception of Bravo. Lucky Bravo!! Poor Mom put on Christmas feeling the worst of all of us - we love you Mom!!

ANYWAY, so there's been a great lack of exercising but lots of Christmasing (MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!).

AND for Christmas Mr. Man and Mom have teamed up together to poor resources and buy me....A TREADMILL!! I'm SO excited. We've spent a huge portion of today online researching what I'm going to want/need....Anyway, I'll definitely keep you updated on that as it unfolds, but YAY!!

Okay, so prayers that the rest of my cold clears up by Sunday because I'm singing in a choir on Sunday night - performance was postponed due to super-snow last week (thank-goodness as I couldn't speak...) and have a couple solos, and currently sound a little too hoarsely-mannish to pull it off.

No stats today to post - we're still not home. Should be home tomorrow, so maybe we'll get to that stuff. ;)

Self-photo-shoot

Okay, so I took some pictures of me this morning to show off the new hair and the rapidly healing (and still gross) face. Of course ALL the shots would be better if taken by, well, anyone else, but here you have it. ;)

THIS is the 'face' shot - note the huge crater on the nose (less shiny than it was on Tuesday, thank goodness! It's quite embarrassing in the middle of a final to have your nose start running from THE OUTSIDE!!!) and the beautiful yellow bruising up around the used-to-be-third-eye stitching....there's ONE more, much smaller crater on the other side of the nose, too, but it's so negligible I haven't taken any pictures.

AND a hair shot - yes, Geaka's crazy. hahaha I'm not all that fussy about my hair - I just want it to work for me and be fun. SO we took off some length and added an orange skunk-stripe along the middle.....sometimes I ABSOLUTELY love it. ;) (THANKS, Geaka!)

Hey, if you think this hair is crazy, you should have seen the blue we did last January.....

WAY too much fun. :) I was happy to cover it up, though, when the time came. AND I'll never do blue again.

TODAY:
Ran 5K on the treadmill FASTER THAN EVER! Ran the whole thing at 6mph (the treadmill's in miles - sorry for the back-and-forth with the units of measurement!) or greater and did it in 30:25. Best before today was over 31 minutes. BOOM baby!
I took yogilates with me to do, but between Christmas shopping (YAY I LOVE CHRISTMAS) and studying (YAY ONLY ONE FINAL LEFT) all my time seemed to just evaporate. We WILL get this whole schedule thing down pat, eventually.....

Short and Sweet

SHORT post, but I want to stay (read: get back) in the habit of telling you about my activity levels for the day so....

TODAY:
Ran 5K on the treadmill at Mom and Dad's. Took my time, and didn't separate my warm-up time from the running time - by the end I was too out of it to do the remedial mathematics problem I needed to find my 5K time so no word on that. I ran most of it at 5.7mph soooooo definitely slower than I have done it. Didn't want to go too insane since last time I ran at all was on Saturday with Mi outside in the ridiculous weather. ;)

ALSO got the new 'do for the...well, whatever. hahaha Every now and then Geaka (my super-awesome-amazing hairstylist and friend extraordinaire) and I get bored and do something different, and today was the day. It's pretty neat. Will post pictures, when we get around to it. ;) Shorter (I LOVE short hair, much to Mr. Man's chagrin...poor boy!) and definitely....FUNKIER. (Last January we did blue streaks - TOO much fun! This isn't that wild.)

Feeling GOOD

Okay, well, I don't feel great right NOW actually, as it's quarter past midnight and I'm EXHAUSTED.... And everything I have to report relates to previous in the week with the exception of today's (now tomorrow's) exercise. SO...

THURSDAY:
Played an AWESOME game of soccer. SO much fun. Played the full game as we had no subs, and I was a force to be reckoned with, let me tell ya'! The opposing players were getting mad and frustrated at ME! I was awesome. hahaha

FRIDAY:
Wii Fit weighed myself. Are you READY for THESE stats??
Weight: 168.2 lbs
BMI: 27.03
Yes, that's right. I broke outta' the 170's. BOOM baby!! (Seriously, seeing how I was 225 at one point in my pregnancy - darned water retention - 168 is AMAZING. I feel all SORTS of hot!)

SATURDAY (meant to be today, except it's after midnight so it's yesterday...)
Ran the 5K at my parents' on the treadmill and got my time UNDER 32 minutes! hahaha Okay, so I was SO exhausted and feeling like death (Dad thought I was going to die listening to me 'breathing' as I ran) that the instant I hit the 5K mark I screamed for joy at having done it before the clock read 32:00 and I hit the power-off button before I took note of the EXACT time, which I immediately regretted. (Don't worry - I powered back up and did a proper cool-down....) Anyway, it wasn't MUCH under 32 minutes, like, I think we're talking 31:47 or something. ;) It's the number I picture when I close my eyes and relive the awesomeness.

And NOW I'm going to bed! Skinnier, or at least LIGHTER, and FASTER than a week ago! YAY! Ciao!

Taking a break

Remember that huge list of school stuff I have to survive?? Well, I'm working on the list today and DYING for a break, so here I am. To give you an update - previously I had two papers and three tests to write/prepare for and I NOW have one paper and three tests to write and prepare for. hahaha I am actually really pleased to have the one paper done and handed in and out of the way and HOPING that whoever marks it thinks I did as awesome a job as I think I did, but the to-live-through list is still OH so high!!

I've written like, 1.25 pages of my next paper, which is to be 4-5 pages long. I figure since I've mostly been writing it when I'm ready to hit my head against the wall after studying for sport psych or neuroanatomy too long that I'm making great progress. AND it's not due until Tuesday afternoon, so I'm chugging along great, there.

Tomorrow's tests...well, they are the two that will either make or break my academic career, I think. I HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE to do EXTREMELY well on these tests, and i don't know if I'm going to pulli t off. I've been studying for HOURS cumulatively, so hopefully it pays off. And then I have a biomechanics midterm on Tuesday which I sadly haven't started studying for. Cross your fingers for me on that one.

BUT I haven't posted in the last couple of days about my activity levels, so surprisingly this post IS going to end up being on topic - and you thought I was just RAMBLING for no reason!!

FRIDAY
LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of studying/researching for paper.
60 minutes yogilates (by the end of the night I was completely burnt out - I was going insane from studying all day. Mr. Man was so good and let me chillax on the mat - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............)

YESTERDAY
Ran on Mom & Dad's treadmill (came over so Mr. Man would have extra hands to help juggle Little Miss while I hole up and study like a mad woman - I CANNOT play mommy this weekend! GAH! I'm SO ready to be done school!!) and actually finished my 5K, which after this slack-infested week I was pleased with. Brings the total for the week to...16K. I ran four times and only did 16K. GEEZE!! Oh well. AND last night I did my 5K in 32:47 - real easy to count exact time on a machine that does the counting for you....

Just a warning, this may end up being a horrid week for my running as my best times to fit runs in are Mondays and Tuesdays, and have I told you yet what I have on tomorrow and Tuesday?? ;)

Okay, BACK to the grindstone!! And WISH ME LUCK!

Shopping Spree!

So I never got around to making any goals about the whole birthday-shopping from Mom because we never got around to planning when we were going. Anyway, we're going! We started tonight after she was finished work and are hitting the mall tomorrow, too! Don't worry, so far only Little Miss is getting spoiled. But she's REALLY getting spoiled. Remind me come Christmas time to post a picture of this year's Christmas dress....GORGEOUS!

Anyway, I do think that since my birthday there's been some slimming down going on, but I wasn't tracking diligently so can't say how I'm starting this shopping trip. Sad for me. I guess we'll know better how I do after tomorrow!

TODAY:
Ran on Mom & Dad's treadmill, which tracks distance in miles. 5K = 3.1 miles soooooo, WALKED for 5 minutes to warm up, 0.12 miles, ran 'till it read 3.42 miles, then walked to cool down 'till 3.60 miles. So in that mess I did run my 5K today, and it took about 32:30, which is a wee eensie teensie bit faster than before on the track. ;)

That makes 3 5ks this week, which I think is the most I've managed to get in, PLUS Wednesday's Tae Bo. hahahaha Been a good week!