Whole100 – Week Seven Recap

Today is DAY FIFTY!  The halfway mark! 

Overall feeling: well….before Friday afternoon I was feeling pretty good. Around 2pm, shit went down and I basically felt like crap all weekend, run down, stressed, exhausted. I also can now empirically say that I have a stress stomach….as in, stress comes and bloat/upset is right on its heels.

Change in plans: going forward into the second half of the Whole100, I’m going to stop daily logging a few things. Skin/Hair/Nails for starters, followed by Energy and Mood. I was logging those items because they were in a poor status when I started and I wanted to watch how that changed in relation to how my Whole30 progressed. But they are mostly in a good state now and suffer just normal fluctuations that can be attributed to weather, hormones, work etc. They aren’t food related anymore so tracking them is too microscopic for me. When I eventually get around to adding certain things back in, I will once again pay very close attention to all the markers so I can see how my body and mind both react.

Hardest aspect: I’m really, REALLY not feeling it and want to end it. However……..there is no end. Unfortunately. Ever. It might as well be called my WholeForever. You see, I want to end it and sit on my sofa under my electric blanket and binge eat halloween candy until I fall into a blissful sugar coma. I don’t want to end it so that I can have a nice glass of wine (although that would be lovely) or so that I can use ketchup again. I want to end it so I can comfort my emotions in a drunken coma of sugar. So ya….great.

CARBS!: my digestion and general wellness have brought to my attention that, while it is winter squash season which is GREAT, there is too much of a good thing. You see, I learned how to gently roast & caramalize delicata squash into something that is SO delicious, it is a major problem for me. Major. http://summertomato.com/better-than-butternut-roasted-delicata-squash-recipe/

They are chewy and caramelly and a bit crispy around the edges and you can eat them like french fries…dipped into Well Fed Mayo. As I said, huge problem. I ate two entire delicata squashes between Friday evening and Sunday morning….by myself. Not that they are huge squashes…but it was a bit much. So much in fact that after breakfast on Sunday morning I didn’t eat until dinner at 6pm and was not hungry in the slightest. So, while squash and beets and carrots and turnips and sweet potatoes are all healthy and delicious and nutritious foods, I need to claw them back about 300%. Might be contributing to my sleepiness/more lethargic-ness, too.

Skin, Hair, Nails: all good.

Energy: has been good, actually. Even on Sunday when I was stressing and bitchy and wishing to lay in bed napping, I didn’t. I did all our weekly food prep, walked to the farmer’s market, helped Ray close up the motorhome for the winter (which I never did get to go camping in this year), washed and then covered up Captain Jack and then I used all my excess cranky energy to blitz the house and tidy and chuck and vaccum and wipe and dust. So I’m kind of looking forward to going home this evening and battening down our hatches for the major storm that is being predicted for our area. They are predicting wide spread power outages and heavy wind and rain. Could be exciting!

Green Time: definitely didn’t win this week. Missed three days due to an unexpected appointment, wicked weather and my regular grocery day. Sleep/Sleep Habits: sleep has been alright. Definitely noticed a preference for staying in bed, not sure if that’s weather related or stress or just a normal fluctuation. I didn’t actually sleep in this weekend though and I didn’t nap.

Digestion/Headaches: all good on both fronts. Thought I was getting a headache on Sunday night but I think it was just tension.

Cycle Hormones: still some fluctuations there….which is irritating

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Whole 100 ~ Week Five Recap

Don’t forget, you can follow my daily log for my Whole 100 at the “Whole30 Logging” tab across the top…or just click here.

Overall feeling: I definitely had some sugar monster issues over the weekend and while I definitely did not venture into non-compliance territory, I felt a bit like the sugar monster was in more control than I was. Once I realized it and reined in my thoughts and feelings and drowned the little bastard in tea and water, things improved well. Other than that, this update will be short, not too much to report. Working early for the rest of the month of October which means getting off early also….so I’m dearly hoping to be able to do my dog-walking and then spend some time in the new gym before Ray gets home. Ah, the best laid plans…………………….

Hardest aspect: nothing is overly difficult anymore, I mostly feel awesome and sane and it’s not any more work cooking this way than I was used to. What I am finding is that 100 days seems really long….like as I was approaching “30”, the numbers were getting really big (28 is REALLY close to 30) but as I have passed 30 and the next milestone is 100, the numbers still seem small and far away.

Easiest aspect: really glad with how Ray is starting to understand some of the “why” behind what I’ve chosen to do. And loving how he is thinking critically about ingredients and effects. We’ve settled nicely into the routine and while he doesn’t deny himself something he wants, he doesn’t offer to me anymore which is so much nicer! He gets it now.

Skin, Hair, Nails: had to finally break down and trim my claws. Usually they top out and don’t get any longer. Such is no longer the case.
Energy: consistent and edging into consistently high. Even in Alien Pre-week…I’m tired but not sacked.
Mood: overall, quite nice. Optimistic and happy. No big swings of highs and lows.
Green Time: 337 minutes! The wood-gathering on Saturday definitely boosted my total!
Sleep/Sleep Habits: have been sleeping very consistently and feeling rested and good to go.
Digestion/Headaches: I’m in Alien Week by 2 days now and have not had a single headache since Day 10 of Whole30. Historically I would have had a horrible headache for the entire week leading up to it. I’ve been extremely diligent about staying hydrated in case that makes a difference. I’m extremly overjoyed to not have had a headache in 26 days. TWENTY SIX DAYS! If sugar is what triggered hormonal headaches in me, we are officially broken up.
Cycle Hormones: so far so good, will know more next week.

Holidays Over! New Beginnings.

9 days, over in a blink! I posted some pics and rundowns on the other blog I have, I’ve linked to them here.

Cul de sac party and a morning at the lake

Cookies, gardening and an epically long walk in the city followed by lunch

Rain day, beach day and an evening harley ride

Beach day (again), lottery home touring and Rocky Point Park

Also rode to Whistler on Saturday, went for drinks and to try to encourage the grandbaby to get moving, cleaned up the garage, cooked, napped and read.

All in all it was a very wonderful and relaxing 9 days and I feel grateful for it!

Today is the beginning of my first Whole30. I was aaaaalmost going to start it yesterday until I decided I wanted to finish the last coconut popsicle. So for the want of chemicals on a stick, I started today instead of yesterday. But today was the original start date anyway so it’s all good. As mentioned previously, there is a tab along the top called “Whole 30 Logging” and I’ll update it every day. You can check it out now if you want….but it’ll be updated in the mornings of the next day (eg, Day 1 will be completely updated on the morning of Day 2).

Besides the very monumental task of achieving a successful Whole30, I also have a couple other goals that I’ll be doing for the 30 days. First, I’m back on my sleep schedule….9pm – 6am every day is sleep. That means….no staying up late on weekends and no sleeping in on them either. Gr. In the long run that actually does make me feel better so I’ll stick with it for at least the duration of this Whole30-100. Plus, it gives me an extra 6 hours every weekend that I otherwise do not have because I’m lounging around in bed. Second, I would like to achieve 30 minutes of green time every day for 30 days. That is; I want to be outside getting fresh air every day for 30 days….assumedly getting some sort of exercise with the dog or doing yard work, sitting on the garden bench doesn’t count.

That’s it. We’re waiting quasi-patiently for the grandbaby to come, holidays are over, Whole30 is underway.

7 Year Life Anniversary

WordPress just sent me a note this morning letting me know that today is my 7 Year Blogiversary!  7 years ago today I set up my first WordPress blog….which was the blog that I charted my course to health and happiness on.  Seems fitting since, nearly 7 years to the day later, I’m embarking on another health and happiness shakeup.

I’ve been putting this one off for years.  YEARS.  Since…..er…..2010 when I first heard about it.  I didn’t want it, didn’t think I needed it and wasn’t interested in doing it.  But the little voice in the back of my head has spoken up loud and clear and said that the time is drawing near.  Whole30.  I have given myself leeway to not do it because “most of our meals are W30 approved”, “I don’t want to give up alcohol”, “my eating is already restricted enough”, “I’m fine following my own rules”, “I don’t want to.”  And many, many more excuses!

 When I started thinking about doing it and I started making those same excuses again, I realized something.

 

“Most of our meals are W30 approved…..except when I use butter…or sour cream…or fish sauce….or the cheap sesame oil blended with soy oil….or corn starch.”  Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with those additives in general (except the soy…the soy is BAD) but the “wrongs” are sneaking in.

“I don’t want to give up alcohol……except I don’t really drink anymore so it’s a non-issue.”  Open bottles of wine last weeks or until I dump them out.

“My eating is already restricted enough…..except, no it isn’t!”  Ice cream, popsicles, potato chips, halva, GF cookies, GF muffins, GF tarts, chocolate.  Ya, not really restricted. 

“I’m fine following my own rules….except apparently I’m not because my rules are wispy and given to disappear randomly.” 

 

Once I’d realized that my excuses weren’t really valid anymore, the only one left was “I don’t want to.”  Only….I also don’t want to be itchy anymore, I don’t want to be feeling snug in my clothes anymore, I don’t want to be exhausted anymore.  Plus…..considering that if I refuse to make a change, nothing changes, I thought I would pick a change that has 10,000+ positive testimonials behind it and is based on science and logic that I know is true and that I completely agree with and understand.  Therefore, Whole30.  I always said I would do one eventually…when the time was right….and September 8^th is the right time. 

I’m off on holidays next week (which is why I chose September 8th as my start date instead of the 1st like normal people) and I have plans for decompressing, unplugging, resting, being out in fresh air (rain or not…although it looks more like rain than not) and prepping my kitchen and my mind for a bit of a life reset.  I’m looking forward to it…..structure and detox and reset. 

I’m going to create a page along the top where I will track the various markers I’m trying to improve as well as log my meals. I’ll update it daily but it won’t show up as new posts….because I surmise that would be very irritating for people!

If you’re doing a Whole30 around this time, comment me up so that we can support each other!

Do It!

What the….?  I had at least 1000 words in my head every day last week and now this week….nothing.  Blank.  I checked my phone to see if I’d taken pictures of anything in the last few days…..nothing.  What the heck has been going on?  Just….hanging out.  Early morning dog walks, morning coffee with the husband, working (sort of), sitting in the sun (except today in the bucketing rain), making and bottling kombucha, taking the dog to the vet, cooking.  All the things that make up a life….that are dead dull to write about!

The weather has been a bit spotty this past week, overcast, on and off cold, on and off rain, darker in the mornings that it was even 2 weeks ago.  It got me thinking about fall and winter (I KNOW, we’re not even to August yet, there’s still LOTS of summer to go) and what I might want to do in the fall/winter.  I thought maybe I would get back to cross stitching, I used to really like that.  Or maybe reading more regularly?  Maybe my sister could teach me how to knit?  Or quilt? None of those really spoke to me though.  I kept trying to drown it out but over the last week a little voice that I’ve been beating into submission for years, somehow gained some strength and started getting a little louder. 

“Do it.  You know you want to.  Do it.  You can totally do it.  You have always wanted to do it.  There is no reason you can’t do it.  Other people do it all the time.  Stop being scared and just DO IT!”

What is “it”?  [Seriously….cannot believe I’m about to put this out into the world]…………the “it” that I have always wanted to do and have always been too scared to try….is a triathlon.  A sprint distance triathlon; 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run. 

It’s terrifying to contemplate; swimming in open water with tonnes of other people, the transitions, the training, fueling, what to wear, swimming, the cost, the swimming….all terrifying.  I’m totally going to do it though and I’ve already picked out my triathlon and my “support crew” for it.  The one I want to do is in mid July in Penticton, about a 3 hour drive away.  My support crew is my sister and as I said to her, being my support team involves travelling there, checking out the venue/package pickup the day before, helping to calm my nerves, standing around for 2.5 hours waiting for me to finish, taking pictures and then celebrating afterwards.  Pretty easy job, if you ask me!

So the things that are freaking me out?

SWIMMING – I know how to swim.  Errr….I knew how to swim?  Once?  A really long time ago?  Errr….I won’t drown immediately if tossed into deep water?  Ya.  There’s that.  I have no background in swimming for sport or exercise.  But I have basically a year to figure it out and practice.  And, I’m very lucky because we have a huge aquatic centre about a 5 minute walk (or 2 minute drive) from our house. 

I’m a tad unlucky thought because right now their schedule permits lane swimming between 6am – 7am and 9pm – 10pm daily.  Not the best hours and I’m hoping in the fall the schedule changes a bit…but even if it doesn’t, I could actually make this work.  There’s also the problem of open water training, learning to swim in a straight line, sighting so you don’t get lost, not panicking.  Again, I may be lucking out in this, there is an open water triathlon drop in coaching group at a lake about 20 minutes away who have coaches in the water and on paddleboards giving assistance and training. 

TRANSITIONS – these are where you change gear between swim and bike and between bike and run.  From what I can tell there is a bit of an art to doing it and since I have no frame of reference, it freaks me the hell out.  Fortunately there are thousands of blogs and articles on the internet that give tips and tricks and training on how to set yourself up.

TRAINING – this doesn’t really scare me like swimming and transitions do…but it’s always been a hold up to committing to doing it.  Where would I find the time? And the commitment?  How long would I have to train for? Am I going to die?  There aren’t enough (daylight) hours in the day, do I really want to make this sort of time commitment against my evenings and weekends?  Because while I want to do a triathlon which would take up a weekend of my life and, acutely, 2-3 hours, “doing a triathlon” actually involves “doing it” for several months.  Right now I’m planning to learn the swimming over the winter months (October – March), and then focus on practice/training the bicycle March and April and focus on training the run in May and June.  Since I’ve basically given myself an entire year to get prepared for this I feel more comfortable with being able to have a more relaxed “training schedule” rather than trying to cram it all into three months, 6 days/week.  Not cool, I already know I would be unlikely to succeed at that.

FUELING/WHAT TO WEAR – again, because I have no frame of reference, it’s all a bit of an unknown…but not enough to make me not do it.

COST – this is going to be pricey.  A swimming pass for 4 months is going to run me $175.  The drop-in cost for the open water coaching group is $15/visit and I anticipate going 6 times at least ($90).  The race fee itself is around $100, the fuel, hotel, food is going to be around $300 and I anticipate about $200 in “stuff” that comes up, swim goggles, bike shorts etc.  So…..fulfilling a life goal is going to cost me a year in preparation and close to $1000 in cost.  Once again, good thing I have a year to sort myself out!

The last thing that concerns me now (which never bothered me before….because I was much more insane back then) is the MENTAL ASPECT.  Can I train and commit and fuel for a year in a manner that is respectful of my body and mind and not get sucked into an obsessive spiral of weight, fitness, appearance and perfection?  Can I knock down the angry voice that tells me “why bother”, “you can’t”, “don’t waste your time” and the scared voice that tells me to sit on the couch and self-medicate my fear with chocolate?

I’m going to do it.  I’ve been visualizing doing it, visualizing swimming 2-3 days a week in the winter, visualizing a healthy mental state, visualizing being excited about it and visualizing finishing it strong.  I’m going to do it. 

Fighting Spirit

I’ve walked home two days in a row this week, Tuesday and Wednesday. Total of 14km, 10 of which are 12% incline or more and the rest are either flat or slightly up. I’ve also marched up 206 steps along the way! I feel SO happy with this, a happiness that I did not feel with biking. Don’t get me wrong, I was pleased with biking in that I was getting to and from work without a car and I was proud of myself for doing something totally different and out of my comfort zone. But all four times I did it, I had apprehension and a bit of fear and when I first decided to commute by bike it’s not something that I took into consideration. When I was walking home for the first time, as steep as it is, all I kept thinking is, “THIS is what I wanted, this right here!”.   Music and fresh air and sunshine and exertion!

 

Even though it’s only been two days, I am feeling better about myself overall and I almost think I even look better! Better hair, happier eyes, skin evening out. Is that possible? Or it’s simply the veil of disappointment with myself lifting and I see the good things instead of the bad? Whatever, I’ll take it. I’m also feeling the uphill climb and stairs all over my lower body and that makes me very happy. That’s something I did not experience when pedal-commuting….hard as it was while it was happening, I felt absolutely nothing when I was done and that was slightly disappointing.

I guess I could have at least SMILED!

 

I’ve been debating whether or not to “sign up” for Tara’s April Century Challenge.   In order to complete the Century via walking home alone, I would have to walk 14 days out of 21 working days. Because I’m debating it, I know that I’m leaving myself room to cop out because walking home 3-4 days per week is a big deal to me. It’s a commitment to myself and lately I’ve been really hesitant to make any promises to myself. What is that bullshit all about??

I’M IN. I hereby declare that I will achieve 100 kilometers walked by midnight on April 30^th. I recognize that I may find this difficult or tiring and that there’s a good chance I need to buy new shoes. I might get wet and dirty and some days I’ll be crabby about it and that’s alright. Asking myself to make this commitment of 100 kilometers walked is less about the distance I’ll travel and more about making a goddamn commitment and then actually keeping it through thick and thin. It’s about insisting on keeping promises to myself and it’s about doing something hard and not quitting when it gets difficult. It’s about finally grabbing onto my fighting spirit that has been lingering just outside of my grasp.

June 1^st is 9 weeks away and the start of the middle of the year. I’ve done so much good for myself mentally in these first months of the year, I’ve set and achieved goals, I’ve formed new habits, I’ve driven the passion back into my life and driven out the seeds of depression. I’ve made peace and made change. The only thing I haven’t really done is put myself through my paces physically. And I haven’t done that in quite a while. I’ve been playing it safe, for various reasons and that comes to an end here and now. 9 weeks…..to shake myself up and make things hard and do what feels right. I don’t want to feel any regret or disappointment with myself when June 1^st arrives.

There’s a part of me that wants to binge eat her way through the Easter aisle in the drugstore and grocery store and who wants to delete this blog and hide away and watch television and forget about having to work hard or be accountable. But then there’s the part of me who likes going to bed at night knowing that things got done right, who likes looking in the mirror and seeing someone worth respecting, who likes taking downtime and knowing that she earned it. That’s the part of me I’ll be focusing on for the April Century Challenge and the next 9 weeks.

In Practice

Just over a week ago I wrote a list of things that I could do that were solely for the purpose of showering myself with self-respect and care.  Things as big as going on a road trip (booked!) to as small as reading for 20 minutes before lights out.  Things like making a salt scrub or going on an evening coffee date.  Going tanning, attending the gym, getting a haircut, waxing my underarms, making my own kombucha & bone broth, filing my nails, waxing my legs, making my own shampoo, spending one evening a week laying on the couch, doing the Coquitlam Crunch.  I wrote the list on a scrap of paper and then stuffed it into my date book.  I haven’t looked at the list since then but it seems that simply writing it down was enough to bear fruit.

I have felt an attitude shift in the last week….nearly imperceptible but definitely there.  That spirit of keeping my commitments to myself and of doing things because I FEEL good after, it seems to be making a difference.  An excellent example of this has been my inner voice.  I’d decided earlier in the week that I would go to the gym on Sunday morning and when Sunday morning arrived it was nearly impossible to leave my cozy bed at 8:30 in the morning and get in my car to go and work hard.  But….my inner voice said to me, plain as day “You made the commitment, anything less than going is disrespectful.”  When there I did some interval training on the bike (thought I’d best get my bike legs going…more on this later) and then went rowing. My goal was 3,000 meters.  Normally I stop at each 1,000 meters for a rest but I didn’t feel that I needed to.  When I got to 2,000 I decided to push on to the end without stopping.  With around 750 meters to go my determination started to falter.  And then my inner voice kicked in.  It told me to picture rowing on water, picture the sun on my face and the gorgeous view, the oars in my hands (which is a bit strange since I’ve never rowed anywhere but a Concept2 in the gym).  Think of how proud I would feel when I made it to 3,000.  To remember how good my body feels when it’s fit and healthy.  I had me think of earning my breakfast and how good it would taste.  And that inner chat was on repeat.   Not once did it say a negative word.  It didn’t tell me I was fat so I deserved to suffer through the workout.  It didn’t tell me to think of losing weight.  It didn’t tell me that I was being punished for the bacon I ate the day before.  It just kept refreshing a beautiful summer water scene in my mind and the air from the flywheel was a summer breeze on my face as I glided across the water.  It kept reminding me that I was capable and to just get it done and I did.

It hasn’t been all “gym” successes though.  There’s been an early morning walk through the park with a coffee, there was an evening coffee date on a night when I was feeling bummed out, there’s been gorgeous fresh fruit and eggs for snacks, there’s been a nice glass of wine in the fading warmth of a nice day.

Obviously it’s not all sunshine and kitten kisses, some days it’s just downright hard to maintain an attitude of “on purpose” and to do the things that are right, but overall I’m starting to feel a bit brighter.

On a fun but also terrifying note,  I test rode my bicycle to work this past weekend.  My honest assessment will follow some pertinent points:

A)     I had attended the gym and did bike intervals and rowing that morning

B)     I had a large breakfast at 11am and a hard-boiled egg and some fruit around 2pm

C)     I gave myself a very false sense of confidence due to having the incorrect route in my head

So my assessment?  It was SO HARD….and it’s going to get SO MUCH HARDER!  The route to work is mostly downhill, it was 8.25km and it took me around 27 minutes.  There were a couple of hills in the route there that I had forgotten about and which sapped my confidence right off the start.  However, I made it to work safely and feel that I should be able to do that on a workday morning.  Ray met me down at my office in his truck in order to make sure I had backup if anything went wrong.  After a quick water stop and a banana, I hopped back on my bike and headed for home.  Bearing in mind that it was nearly 6pm, I knew that I wasn’t going to bike all the way home, I just wanted to get the “traffic-y” part out of the way so I knew my route.  I was SO glad that Ray and his truck were there because I was completely spent about a quarter of the way back home.  After arriving home I downloaded my ride and took a look at it and am by turns, really stoked and really nervous!

This is a map of the elevation of my ride to work…..and I’ve marked with two little arrows the “hills” I was referring to.  They are mere blips.  Now picture this graph in the reverse because that is the way home!  The only thing keeping me from selling my bicycle and never even considering this wacky “bicycle commuter” thing again, is the fact that I have actually done it before.  I successfully rode up this hill on that same bicycle about 3 years ago.  And I KNOW that it didn’t take me more than an hour.  So….I’m not in as excellent shape as I was back then……but I sure will be by the time summer rolls around!  My plan is to ride one day this week (Wednesday), two days next week and then three days each week thereafter….weather permitting, of course.  And, as a pre-success reward for myself, I bought new huge saddlebags (for my lunch and change of clothes), a new rear taillight and new riding gloves. I’m really excited to get this started!

I think that’s about all for me…..I’ve been putting My Passion Experiment into practice in tangible, measurable ways…and while I’m not actually measuring it, I can feel it starting to build and I’m so glad for that.

All The Way To The End

It’s been snowing here for 50 hours straight.  It entirely depends on what elevation you live at and in what area because we have 11” of snow at home and down the hill, 3 miles away where I work, there is barely a skiff, you can still see grass!  We’ve had the snowplow in our cul-de-sac twice this weekend and I don’t think other municipalities have even taken their snow plows out of the garage!

 

This weekend seemed really long, for some reason….like it was more than just two days.  Friday night I left work and went to get my hair cut.  I had intended on just getting a wee trim of the ends but when I got there I had a moment of insanity and told him he could cut it quite a bit shorter.  I absolutely love it!  I love the length and the cut and the way it feels. 

 

Saturday morning my sweet hubby dragged our sleep-disrupting dog out of the bedroom and closed the door and went about some of his own errands while I got to sleep in, it was blissful!  We did some errands and I did some cooking and there was napping and then we dolled up and went to a pub fundraiser for the Boxer Rescue that we’re a part of.  That was a really fun evening, crappy food, good wine and great company.  We would have liked to stay out later but the entire group of 50-odd people all packed up and went home early….because…..4am Gold Medal HOCKEY!!!!!!!!!!!  In British Columbia, if you wanted to watch the Gold Medal Game live, you had to get up at 4am!  We did just that and it was great!  Ray lit a fire (which we kept burning until 10pm last night, living room so toasty, rest of the house, SO COLD!) and we made coffees and I put together a new recipe that I like to call “Gold Medal Oven Pancake”.  It was super easy and SO delicious!  And, if you don’t drown it in maple syrup (ya right), it’s not awful for you but it is a higher calorie recipe so I would consider it a special occasion treat.  I’ve linked the picture below to the original recipe and I’ll also put it on the FEED ME page.  I highly recommend this one!

A couple of other things that are on the go right now.  I have 5 days left to come in on the Century at my original goal of racking up 100 kilometers by March 1^st.  5 Days left and 31 kilometers left.  If I’m going to be completely honest, when I originally decided to do this challenge I had a sneaking suspicion that I’d end up in the last week with a big push to finish.  I’m not sure why I thought that……because if it hadn’t been for my injury in early February, I would have been done by now.  I have to average 6.27 kilometers (3.9 miles) every day this week to have a shot at succeeding.  So what will I do?  I’m going for the big push and the successful finish! It will be hard to get there but I really have no reason why I can’t do it.  Between the gym and an evening dog walk each night, I’m determined to pile those kilometers on and finish what I started!

With only 4 days left in the month, I’m starting to tally up my February goals and results as well and see how things went.  I am VERY surprised by how much momentum I lost at the beginning of February.  Getting sidelined by injury/recovery really threw a wrench in my works in ways that I didn’t really see coming.  For instance…..we did not eat at the dinner table once last week.  Anyway….there were some successes and some flops…..I have a couple more days this month to work on getting some positives….but mostly I’m just really looking forward to a fresh March start!

As far as my previous post about groceries goes, I was really glad to read the comments and see that a few of you don’t budget for groceries because you enjoy what you eat too much.  We do as well and I tend to buy groceries based on what I feel like eating rather than what may be on sale however I felt that we had room to make an improvement on just how much we were spending.  I think I’ve done that really well between January and February and I hope to make another little dent between February and March.  One thing that I will not do though is compromise on what we eat.  I would like to reduce our grocery bill and if going a couple different places & planning our weekly menu based on the meat or veggies that are reduced pricing does that for me without too much hassle then I’d be crazy not to do it.  But I will not sacrifice our enjoyment, our health or our overall nutrition for the desire to knock a few bucks off our bill every month. Just wanted to clear that up. 

And finally…..if you made it this far into my post, that’s good…because you get to hear the happy news!  Ray’s daughter is expecting a baby in September and we are going to be grandparents!  His daughter and her husband have been trying for quite a while now and have suffered some loss along the way so we’re all very excited with this great news!  I’m sure, as things progress, that you’ll hear more about this….we’re so excited!

That’s it for me today, trying to stay warm, watching the snow fall and contemplating my walking route after work today to cram in the most kilometers possible!

Wanted: Downtime

So my big plan of taking Gracie for a walk between 7 &8pm in the evenings fell through before it even got started.  Realistically, by the time dinner was over and cleaned up it was 7:05pm and I hadn’t even sat down yet, there was No Way I was taking my jammies off (which I put on the moment I come through the door after work) and going outside in the dark and the cold.  It’s possible that putting the pj’s on right after work is not a great idea for trying to get going, but I also need my own downtime.  Time when I am just sitting, not cooking or working or at the gym or cleaning or dog walking.  Just an hour to sit.  Scroll through Twitter.  Watch a show.  File my nails.

Fortunately when I got home I found that Gracie had been dog-napped earlier in the day and had spent a few hours off leash roaming around the Hatchery site with Kyle, doing what dogs do….so she wasn’t hurting for fresh air at all.  I think she’s going again today too.

I heard from Tara that she might be on board with joining the Century Life Ride goal, anyone else?  It’s totally do-able, approximately 2.5km per day between now and March 1^st!  I’ve made a little chart that I’m going to use to track my progress.  It’s a little….er….rudimentary, but if anyone else wants to use it, let me know and I’ll send it along!  I’ve been telling people in real life about it as well….such that I am a competitive sort and don’t like any failure, let alone a public one.

In other news, I managed to serve two “hot plate” meals this week, various and random precooked and stir fried veggies with repeat meat (ie, same meat each time, just different seasoning) and Ray didn’t seem to catch on to what I was doing….so next week I’m going to do it again and try to serve it three times, it’s SO much easier for me and a departure from the “proper” meals that I have to dream up and cook.  Also, there are only so many ways to serve meat and vegetables, got to branch out a bit!

Still in food news, one of our new favourite things to do is take canned (or fresh if you want), pineapple, dice it up a bit smaller than it comes and throw that and sliced almonds into your cauli rice.  Last night was a frying pan full of riced cauli, a handful of shredded yam (thanks, food processor!), several large handfuls of fresh spinach, cooked carrots, celery & potato from the previous night and then I threw the pineapple and almonds in with it, a dash of coconut aminos and some garlic salt.  It turned out SO good and was ready in less than 7 minutes.   Then I let us each pick what we wanted for meat (we had the option of bora bora balls, citrus pork or cooked chicken thighs) and re-fried that in a separate pan with some coconut milk for moisture.

(on a side note, 16 days into January and I have cooked or prepared every single meal we’ve eaten….which is a little new to us, we typically eat at the pub around once a week, the diner on Sunday mornings and once out during the weekend for lunch…..that is a lot and this month’s “no eating out” rule is definitely saving us money and improving our health…..but I dreamed of a burger and fries from the pub last night…..it was so realistic that I had to ask myself if it had been real when I woke up!  I also dreamt of eating a bunch Pot of Gold chocolates….not sure what that means, exactly)  Aaaand….Ray doesn’t know it but this “no eating out” rule will be carrying over into at least the months of February and March.  😉

I am feeling a smidgen of a fraction of a percent better yesterday and today than I have in about 2 weeks….I wasn’t going to say anything because I’m scared to jinx it, LOL!  But….in the interest of being real…………..

Century

After I declared this morning that my body wants me to exercise more, I felt a sense of….I don’t know….correctness?  A sense that I had put my finger on a big part of my current issues and that things were going to improve from here.  That’s a nice feeling!  If you know me at all, you know I like a challenge….anything that I can work on or toward that has a goal and a finish line/date.  If you do know me, you would also know that I believe that things open up in the world as we are ready for them; the window I jumped through 7 years ago when I decided to shake up my life, the window 6 years ago when I decided to quit smoking, the window when I quit my job and moved into a new phase of my life.  I think it’s always important to be striving for things but I really feel like certain windows open up as you become ready, you just have to be aware enough to notice them.

So, today I declared “more exercise” and what my plan was to do it.  Then, later in the afternoon I clicked through to a blog and found someone doing a “100 Miles Challenge” and a lightbulb went off in my head, that is exactly what I need!  Now, being Canadian, I can’t do a 100 MILE challenge because, well…..we’re metric and I enjoy my metricocity.  But I’m going to do a 100 KILOMETER challenge, a “century”.  Technically a Century is a 100km bicycle ride but I get to make my own rules so I’m going to refer to my challenge as:

“Century” because it’s one hundred kilometers and “Life Ride” because it’s going to be any combination of rowing, running or walking (indoors at the gym or outside on the road/trail).  Whatever activity that I do (with purpose) that propels me forward gets logged as relevant kilometers.  The finish line is 100 Kilometers before March 1^st.  That’s 45 days from today, January 15^th, and works out to an average of 2.3 kilometers per day.  I would like to think that I’ve given myself a pretty achievable goal but I wasn’t absolutely positive how this would work out so I didn’t want to make it unattainable.  The reward for achieving the goal is a reflexology foot treatment (make sense, right, my feet are mostly going to be the ones getting me there!).

Does anyone want to join in?  Leave a note in the comments so that we can check in with each other along the way!  If you’re in the US, it’s 62.13 miles in the 45 days…. same overall measurement.  There are no real rules, just start logging your distances for any walk, run or row and then report back on March 1^st!

I’m excited about this!