Friday, January 30, 2009

it's real.

So I have been up in my weight since before Christmas. I know. None of my clothes fit right or look good. I know. Yes some how, I thought what I was doing was ok and that I didn't really look that bad (I still don't think I look BAD, but not how I want to look. Bring back last July!) So this morning I weighed in and took measurements. WI was nasty. 146.something. Ew ew ew. That's a number I haven't seen in like 2 years. And it's going the wrong way. Boo! (I do think TOM is playing with me right now though...) Well the measurements are worse. I'm up over an inch EVERYWHERE (belly, hips of course. but even my neck! my arm, and it's not muscle). So it's time to really be serious. There is a lot of work to do here!



I think I need to revisit my old friend Strength Training. I do what weights there are in my weekly classes, but after the first one, my muscles are basically used to it. it's light weights, I don't ever get sore the next day. So I need to dig out the barbell and hit it at least once a week. The running is good too, but I need to do intervals, not just the straight 30 minutes. (which I did again yesterday). I've got a week and a half left of free trial at one gym and I'm going to use it. Then I've got 6 passes to MY gym where I'm going to teach (the membership I get I'm assuming starts when I start, which should be March). So I think I can have Feb basically covered with gym time. Need to use it. I can't go today, didn't bring my stuff, and this weekend I've got to get my thesis edits done. No question. but there might still be time for me to do a weekend gym. That's always fun, no time restraints.



Ok, so that's the deal. I just went to Walmart while my monthly computer updates were being done (basically can't work for an hour anyway). Bought new earphones which is why I went. But then thought I needed a "snack" avoided everythign I knew I wouldn't be able to moderate (bags of chips, trail mix, etc.) didn't get granola bars either because I was in the mood to eat several ya know? So instead, I bought a couple protein bars. Lowest cal, highest protein, yet taste like chocolate bars! yay! But then at the checkout I bought a chocolate bar too (just a milk chocolate cadbury or something). But I didn't eat it. (was going to get a 100 cal bar, but it was MORE MONEY! so convinced myself that I'd be able to each just a couple squares. but I'm not going to touch it at all instead). Once I got in the car I didn't really want any of it. An hour later I had a protein bar (aka now).

Anyway, not much more to say again. Gonna make a weekend list, might post that later.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

blahhhhhhhhh

I don't really think I have anything to say today. I ran on the treadmill yesterday for 30 minutes. It is so hard for some reason! Can't wait to go outside. Gotta get back into running though because I've got a 10K in May I wanna run. I wanna make sure I'm back to being awesome though by then because I'm running it with some girlfriends who know how fast I was last year.

Um, food is ok. Last night's supper was poor. PB toast and 2 bananas. Should have done better. Forgot to thaw anything out for tonight too. Oops. Oh well I'll find something. Maybe fish?

Still no tv so I won't be watching Grey's. That's ok, the show is sort of annoying anyway. (so fake and over dramatic.)

Um, lunch time now. Thank goodness it's thursday, I need a weekend.

testing testing 123

ignore me

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

step by step

Oo baby. Ugh. NKOTB are coming to S'toon again. The first time was sort of funny. Now it annoys me. Boo.

Yesterday after work I went to Step class at this other gym (you can get a free 2 week trial if you're new). Anyway it's the BTS step. So what I would be teaching. It was AWESOME. I had never done it before but caught on fairly quick. So probably I would be completely fine the second time. There were 2 instructors. 1 was this amazing buff chick. Tall, muscular, real athlete look. The second was this 45 year old, slightly chubby, mom looking lady. She had red lipstick on (she explained because she had to judge a spelling bee and they had to see her lips). When she did the moves they looked like a dance sort of. When the other girl did they looked like boot camp and marching. It made me feel good because I imagined I'd be in the middle somewhere when I teach.

Some of the tracks were way easy, some were completely BRUTAL! So that's awesome. Got a killer workout. And glad I went, because for some reason my regular step tonight is cancelled. Gonna have to dig out the treadmill. (and that's good because my girlfriends are talking about running in some 10 k races. Running seems so hard right now!)

Anyway, yesterday was a good day. Very tiring. When I got home I made myself an omlete and toast for supper. No dessert. Breakfast was a protein smoothie and banana. No snack. Lunch will be another salad. Regular snacks. (melon, apple, yogurt, etc) supper for hubby will be wings. I'll have some of the pasta I froze (the one with the italian sausage and all the veggies). and milk. mmm milk.

Oh, the string cheese. I dont' think it's really BAD for you. But I can't find the low fat stuff. So it's full fat cheese. Portion controlled sure. But I only eat it as a protein serving. And it's sort of piddly for that. Much better sources. Plus it's so small I feel like I didn't even eat anything.

A change of subject - do you guys have any great ideas (like unusual yet so perfect) for a stagette for my sister. Time to start thinking of these things. Not just the regular scavenger hunt in a bar (get a phone number, get somebody to buy you a shot etc). Maybe a city wide scavenger hunt would be fun. Not dirty. sort of hard too. That's why I need you? Help?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

a day

So I did NO work yesterday so I'm trying to make up for it a bit today. There was nobody here in the office so it just makes me want to leave too. I did take off a bit early to run some errands at the university at least. Semi-work (they have terrible hours so it has to be done during the day).

Anyway, last night was sculpting class. it was good. Tried to push it harder this time (since I remember saying that I wanted to last week). So that was good. don't feel terribly sore today however. But I did feel really strong when I was doing the class, just tossing the weights around and just general movement was really easy and smooth. Also talked with Kim (instructor) a bit about me teaching. She was so excited for me and gave me some good tips and stuff.

I also made some carrot bran muffins last night. But they didn't turn out. I think I changed the recipe too much. I healthified them. Splenda brown sugar instead of real, apple sauce instead of oil, whole wheat flour instead of white. They taste fine, but they just didn't cook properly, the middle is pretty raw. I probably should have cooked them longer but I had to go to class. Oh well, I can try again later. I threw them in the freezer so maybe when I microwave defrost them they'll cook more?

Realized this morning that I'm not really trying to lose weight again. That happened before, I'm basically doing the same thing, working out a bit more, avoiding things that make me gain (chips cookies etc) but not really doing anything to lose, just hoping it happens. Since hubby and I had a talk, and with sis's wedding and fitting in my bridesmaid dress, PLUS this teaching thing, I've sort of got some deadlines and want to get serious about it again. So what I'm going to change is cutting back even further on the processed foods. Right now I'm down to just a granola bar or oatmeal bar or something like that every day, and string cheese, going to get those gone. Go back to eating tons and tons of fruit and veggies (which I do already, but just eat those before a processed snack now). The cheese thing is hard because I like to get my protein in, but they're just not good bang for my buck. I'm going to try and drink milk more as my protein. Need to get an ice pack or two for the lunch kit or something. I only ever looked at the nutrition info for skim milk the other day and it's really great!

Also, increasing the salad consumption. Plus suppers have been much better. I snack less when I eat square meals.

I think the biggest thing has to be in the mindless snacks though. Like last night, I ate 2 muffins when baking them. Just checking how cooked they were. WAsn't hungry, didn't even want to eat it. Just had it in my hand so I did. Same with grabbing little treats or candies all the time. Sure each one is only 15 calories, but they add up!

I'm just trying to be more accountable and mindful of my goal. Basically I want to do a 4 week hard core thing before my step class training. As in be down 5 lbs by then. Then take a week off or two, then maybe do another hard core thing. In short bursts I think I can be quite intense. It doesn't help that i've been bombarded with lose 10 lbs in 8 week plans and stuff. Could you imagine being done in only 8 weeks? Completely possible. Let's get serious.

Monday, January 26, 2009

And how was your weekend?

Mine was...alright.

I sort of hated it. Feel like I wasted it. Nothing bad happened though. Just not how I wanted to spend my free time.

Friday after we went to that little curves kinda gym, and then did my returns at Costco, hubby and I went home to his parents for the weekend. It was only supposed to be for Saturday to watch his nephew play hockey then come home. But his parents managed to guilt us into staying over one more night saying we'd play cards or something. But that never happened, instead hubby and my BIL slept on the couch, I went to church with the rest of the family, then we came home and went to bed. Boo. Then in the morning I wanted to leave by 10:00 so we could be home by noon. Never happened. Hubby got up at 10:00 and was packing the SUV but MIL was like "what? You're not staying for breakfast? It'll be done in 10 minutes!" which wasn't true, 1/2 hour later we sat down to eat, then, even though I think it pissed her off a bit, we put our dishes by the sink and took off. Didn't help clean up. But seriously, we had the SUV running! Whatever. She drove me a bit nuts, as per usual.

Then when we finally got home, my other BIL came over to help hubby put up the satellite dish (he promised he'd do it this weekend, and even though it was -40 out, he kept his promise). So from 2:00 to 7:00 at night they wired that in. But something didn't work and we're having an error about a switch so we might need a new part. So we have no tv. So last night I finally watched the Dark Knight. and of course it was good. Not as good as all the hype I don't think, but whatever.

I did work on my thesis edits a bit. Did not get done. Probably need another 2 days of it. Boo. Oh well. just get it done.

Eating wasn't great this weekend. Never is when I'm not at home. Had a sub on friday, all good there. Saturday we ate lunch out and I had a clubhouse, but no fries. and a little bag of 5cent candies and some almonds that I packed. Then supper MIL made chicken fettucini alfredo, full fat cream. With creamy coleslaw and leftover creamy potato salad. I had small servings of each. I was just so conscious of how different it would be from what I would make for supper.

Then dessert she brought out all these Christmas treats from the freezer. I ate like 3 pieces of cake. It was a waste. I wanted to try everything but shouldn't have. Should have had a small piece of carrot cake, the rest was only ok. Or had none of it. I wasn't hungry. I should have drank more water, I never drink enough back home.

Supper yesterday was good though. I cooked steak, oven roasted potatoes and mixed veggies. YUM!

I got no exercise saturday and sunday. After 7 straight days. that sort of sucks. But this week I want to try and workout every day again. It's trickier because the treadmill is currently buried in the basement with all the stuff we moved to insulate the walls.

Anyway, I'm going to make weekly goals for this week:
1. exercise monday to friday. 5 days.
2. salads for lunch every day. (if I take some time and add more veggies, I LOVE salads)
3. FINISH THESIS EDITS

That's lots.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Interview - from Jen

Don't know if you all saw this when Jen did it, but it looked fun so now here I am. If you want to too, tell me!

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


Q1. What character (in a book or movie) do you most identify with (or aspire to be like)??
Oh hard. These are all hard. Hmm...


Q2. You are completely awesome, what is the most awesome thing you have EVER accomplished BESIDES your masters degree??

I think the one in most recent memory would be all the races and triathlons I did last summer (2 of each!) I was so proud and impressed with myself after each of those. Sort of suprised that that was me. Impressed with myself I guess. (I'm sure I've done more awesome things, boring school related or something though)


Q3. If money were not an object, what would you do for a living?? Would you still choose to be an engineer?

Money were no object? I wouldn't work. I currently dream of the day I can retire. I'm sooo looking forward to maternity leave. I take every chance I can to ditch work early. I am a type B personality to the EXTREME! Which is funny because I do enjoy the work I'm doing. I just prefer not doing work to doing work.

The whole career path thing is so funny to me. My little brothers are struggling with the whole, what should I do when I grow up thing. I don't think it matters half as much as anybody thinks. (unless of course you find some crazy inspiration, passion type career, artist like or something). But most jobs are just jobs. I happened to lean towards engineering based on being good at math and science. My sister leaned towards biology because she was good at math and science too. We do completely different things at work, but could just as easily be in each other's shoes. Plus neither of us wanted to do what we ARE doing when we chose our career paths. Things happen and you find your place. most jobs people end up at are probably not even ones you knew existed before. (mine's certainly not).

At the same time, I did enjoy teaching my lab at the university. You don't really get paid, but a TA was quite a fun job (except for marking). Maybe I'll find that same fun with teaching Step?


Q4. On the flip side, if you won the lottery, what would you do with all the money??

I love this question, every time the lottery amount is said I imagine what I would do with every penny. But I don't ever play the lottery. And I'm super boring about it. I would take half the money and just put it away in a bank somewhere (future holidays, kids college funds, etc etc). I'd pay off our house and we'd sell our current vehicles and buy new ones (still sensible, not ferrari's or anything, and 1 year old, I couldn't deal with a new vehicle and the depreciation!). I would take $1000 and just go nuts in a mall on clothes and shoes (which is tons for me, but I usually shop at Walmart. I'd probably need to fly Jen in to come shopping with me to help!) I would just straight give hubby $10000 to do whatever he wanted (of course all the money would be both of ours and we'd have to agree on decisions, but this is pretending it's all mine with no guilt). I'm sure he'd buy a snowmobile or something. I would then (after quitting work obviously) go on a holiday to Europe. all over the place. If any friends or family wanted to come visit/travel with me, I'd pay for our expenses travelling. Not their flights (well my parents I would but that's it.) I would only want to travel with people who want to be there, not just going for a free trip.

The only other purchases I'd make for sure would be a piano, a fancy scrapbook diecut machine (the kind you can hook up to your computer to get your own fonts and stuff. I know, nerd), and pay somebody to finish the basement. I think I would probably also buy my sister a crazy nice wedding present. But I'd mostly try not to flash all my money around. I don't want to have to spend it on other people like helping them buy a house. I don't think it's really good for other people to have things just given to them. I would help people out (I'm thinking of sis and SIL right now, they each want to buy a house) but not buy things outright for them. Maybe that's wrong. But I know I would feel strange if somebody just bought my house for me or even a car or something.

that was probably so boring to read. But like I said, it's fun for me to do.


Q5. Since we had a good discussion about passions and defining ourselves, if you were in an interview (which you kind of are!) how would you define “Randi”??

Very interesting question! From our discussion, I guess you already know I would not like to be defined. I'm pretty sure my rebellious side would kick in as soon as I decide something and just be the opposite of it. But let's see... I guess the things that are consistant with me are happy, positive, no BS, tough shell, soft in the middle and smart. I threw the smart in because that's the one way I would always define myself growing up. Since I was 10. I knew I wasn't the pretty one or the athletic one or the popular one or any of that. I was the smart one. Lately I really feel like the no BS one. That's the strongest feeling I've got. I strip away things that don't matter (and sometimes I do it when it's things that do matter to other people.) and just deal with what's real.

This is really interesting to me though, do you guys feel that's an accurate definition? Anything to add? (You won't hurt my feelings, well, if you say it nicely you won't).


oh also

WI, 144.2. A loss of 0.8 lbs. Not too shabby. Hubby declared the contest off however because he now has to focus so much on the basement he won't have time to exercise, plus he thinks I've got an unfair advantage now. (but I won't be teaching until at least March, I think he just wanted out). Anyway, I still want to track my exercise, I had 5.5 hours last week. Exercised 6 days.

tonight we're going to that curves like gym again, my sister liked it and the "trainer" sort of was pressuring us. That's cool. It's some unusual exercises I don't do ever, plus I at least know how to protect my back and so on during some of the "bad" exercises. So I'll be working out on a friday which is always hard! Tomorrow we're probably going home to watch nephew's hockey game (and brag about my instructor status!) so it might be tricky to get the exercise in. ALSO, I was supposed to finish my thesis edits this weekend. I'll do my best, but it might get pushed back a bit.

Sooo...what happened?

This is for you Carolyn, I would have waited until noon to post if you didn't leave your comment!

Soo....after work yesterday I went to the gym, I realized I was a bit early so bought a water bottle next door first. Then I realized I'm now a bit late (5:15, and I have to meet people and change before a class at 5:30, so I guess right on time really). Anyway, so I go in, tell them who I am and who I'm there to see. They make me fill out a form (the waiver of injury thing, and address etc) then A comes up beside me. She's really cute, super short, way nice. Good so far. She points out the change room and the classroom and says we'll meet in there for the class. Awesome.

Oh, I should say, this gym is a DREAM! It's brand new, (membership is $700 a year!), has a second level that is open to the first (so the main floor has super high ceilings), the main floor is weight machines, a yoga class room, a spin room, the change rooms, some offices, a juice bar and sandwich bar etc. Upstairs is a classroom for step and sculpt etc and all the cardio machines (which all have their own tv!).

So I go change, the lockerroom/bathroom is gorgeous. They've got a sauna or something too. Plus hairdryers set up for you to use (not hotel crappy ones either, I thought somebody forgot their own there, but then saw that they were everywhere!) Change quick, go upstairs. Set up for class. There were only about 5 of us in this class. And it's the same class that my weight class on Mondays is so I was a pro. However she used barbells instead of dumbells, and did NOT mention anything about dropping the weight if it was too hard like my monday class, so I suffered through some killer lunges and curls and stuff. Plus there were mirrors all around so I got to see how nasty my butt looks during squats. hmm.

Anyway, after class we went to meet M who is really in charge of hiring I guess, she was this older woman with some kind of european accent. Very yoga like lady. Again, really nice. I met her and had a tour of the building with A. Then back to M. She's really nice, but not very good business lady. Or just a bit flighty. She kept getting distracted and asking A about other gym things, that I probably shouldn't be a part of.

Anyway, did I get the job? YES!

There was actually no interview, I think they thought they were the interview-ee as well. They were basically trying to sell me on the place, tell me what the perks are, how things work as far as scheduling etc. I told them I had no fitness teaching experience but they didn't care in the least. M just said something like "well you look like you'd be confident" or something. Ok.

So what are the perks? $25 per class, which A says is the highest in the city. So like I expected. Since they're new, they still do all scheduled classes but are starting to go by attendance soon. As in, if there's less than 5 people, class is cancelled or something. But I'd still get $15 for being there. I get free membership to the gym for me and my spouse (I'm wondering if they can switch that to my little brother who lives near there and wants to join the gym but it's too expensive. Hubby will never come in to the city for it). So that's like $1400 right there! 20% off all products which includes the juice bar! I think there were others but I don't remember.

So they agreed with me on probably 2 classes/week. Maybe 3. But they do alternating things sometimes with instructors, especially for weekend classes so you still get every second weekend off. Plus (as they seemed like they were trying to get me instead of me trying to work there) they basically asked what times would work best for me, so there shouldn't be too much extra driving for me. Plus she gave me some free drop in passes to various classes and just the gym in general which is cool. And M said to A (the part I probably didn't need to hear) "so would we start scheduling her in March after the class?" and A was like "well we'll see how the class goes, and how she feels, she'd only have 1 week to learn the routine and then teach by March." so it seems totally in my hands.

Oh, one interesting thing, after the course, I have to get video taped doing the class and then send it in to BTS to be accredited or something. Weird. But i'm sure I'll be fine after the training (which A sent me some info on). Oh, and the training will cost $240, but then $100 will be reimbursed after I start teaching, so only $140, which I'll make back in a month! Woohoo!

How cool is this?

Thursday, January 22, 2009

do do da do

Not much to report today. Talked a lot yesterday instead.


Step class last night. Good workout. I have to get a bit more comfortable with it before I can get a really really good workout. I think next class I'll put my step on the higher level and do a bit better. But it was still good. I am actually pretty sore today. My sides and inner thighs from the weird (useless) exercises I did at that personal trainer "curves" thing. Hopefully I can still workout good before my "interview" tonight.


Oh, I did go to Lulu and buy a shirt. I can't find a picture of it on the site, I guess they don't sell it regularly or something. I'll get a picture sometime. It's black with accents that are white with black pinstripes. It's pretty cool. It's got a y back, and then a sort of extra keyhole vent. $57 dollars later. Eek!


Then I stopped to pay for my bridesmaid dress, here's a picture, sort of, it's like this but one with out the top fold thing. This color though. Ignore the bra straps, my ugly expression and my sport socks. Pretty nice though huh? I got a size bigger than this because it's not done up properly. They wanted me to order either a 12 or 10 (this is an 8), I got the 10.


Pretty color huh? I want to dye my hair red, well redder, it sort of looks red in this picture already. It's pretty much the color of my eyes. aww..

Yeah, went to Costco after that too, bought another exercise tank and yoga pants (both medium) AND some black pants (size 8). All are the wrong size. The pants I need a 6, the exercise clothes I need a large. weird.

anyway, 4 hours from now I've got that class, then an hour from then I'm doing an "interview". Wish me luck!!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

good discussion

Hey everybody, check out Vanessa's blog and the comments about passions, it's really interesting. I want to know everybody's thoughts on it.

The hubby

So I was feeling a bit blue after my post. When I spelled it all out, and imagined reading it not knowing hubby, I'd think he was sort of a jerk. yet I think I explained things fairly. Hmm... I don't really think he's a jerk. (Though sometimes....ask me when we're fighting!)

I just did a bit of reading over at Roni's Blog, since she's so great and covers everything I knew I'd find something on supportive/hindering husbands in her archieves. And I did, and here's the thoughts it lead me to.

While I completely validate the basement time thing, I think that's it's own issue and really has nothing to do with me teaching or not. Just his frustration that he has to do it, and I can't even help him (trust me! I'd try, but hubby and I are both too stubborn and it has to be our own way that we can't even put a chain back on a bicycle together!).

So aside from the basement thing, he's still sort of...nervous? unhappy? that I am going to do this. I think he would be happier if I was fat and lazy. I think he would be happier if my evenings consisted of vegging on the couch with a bag of chips. If I were "fun".

I think that makes complete sense. Don't we all want to just shake your prissy, goody-2-shoes friend and make her drink tequila shots with you? Isn't it more fun to go out for dessert with a girlfriend and co-miserate over cheesecake and swear that we'll eat better starting tomorrow? Don't we love a good celebrity fall off the wagon story?

Here's a story I heard, I might mess it up. If you put a whole bunch of rats in a barrel together, they will die in there. If one rat climbs up a little bit on top of some others, they are capable of building a pyramid and reaching the top, heck, they could probably dig in with their nasty little claws and just climb out. But if one rat sees another climbing to the top, they'll bite his tail and pull him back down with the rest of the rats. If any starts to get ahead, they're pulled back the rest, sealing their fate to all die in the barrel.

Interesting huh?

I think human nature is the same as rat nature in a way. It's hard to see others get "ahead" of you. Even though it has nothing to do with you. I'm glad my mom instilled a different attitude in me. Back when I was a kid, like all kids, I wanted everything fair. If my little brother got a bigger allowance than I got when I was his age, I was up in arms! However, as my mom pointed out, I still got my fair share, what does it matter if he got more or less? Him getting more money, did not mean that I got less. Same thing with birthday presents, or bedtimes or a million other things kids need to be "fair" about. So while I do still get that tinge of unfair! now, I at least can step back from it and see how it doesn't matter.

Same line of thinking, if I get in great shape and get more money and all this stuff, it doesn't mean hubby gets fatter or makes less money. He still has to finish the basement whether I teach or not ya know? I realize I'm a huge hypocrite as I freaked out when SIL started getting skinnier than me. However, I think I handled it well, by just motivating myself to do more about me, not trick her into eating fudge. (well mostly right?)

I can tell you for a fact, my MIL did a heck of a lot of things "wrong" raising her kids (wrong in my opinion of course). She couldn't really help it, she modelled them after herself (I can't help it if my mom rocks and she's got problems!) ;) She's a very superficial person, very bratty, gossipy, needs things "fair" to the 10th degree. It's helpful to remember that's hubby's mother when there's there's things I don't like about him. Understand things better.

Anyway, I guess like in all things, you can't really change a person, they have to change themselves. So I can't make hubby just accept that I'm going to climb up a little bit and that he is free to still do whatever he wants. I'm not pushing him down, he's free to climb or not climb as he choses.

Do you guys think I've hit the mark there? Are there other things going on? Is there something I can do to help hubby feel more at ease? Did your mother do a good job raising you?

The plan

The dress dilemma is solved for me. I got an email from A (the girl I was talking to re: interview) and since I have to commute so basically need to kill time after work before coming in, she suggested I come in to take her Group Power class and then do the tour and stuff after! So I will be wearing my fake lulu best! (unless I splurge and go shopping tonight and buy a non-fake lulu top! I like my pants I think, but there does seem to be something dressier about real lulu. heck, waitresses wear it instead of dress pants and a nice top now!)

So right after work tomorrow I get to go to this new fancy pants gym and take a free weight class, impress the instructor (I have no doubt I will! I kill at strength!) then get a tour and talk to her about stuff. SO excited! (BTW, Jen, I was picturing EXACTLY what you said, a nice athletic zip up, probably still wear this over my exercise stuff post class).

Yesterday my sis and I had that free "personal training" session right? What false advertising! this "gym" is basically Curves. The training, was this girl showing us the circuit (and the most crazy irritating girl ever! VERY unprofessional, no people skills, I'll get into it). Well first she did take our measurements. Guess my bodyfat. no wait don't, that might get insulting, and if it's not insulting it will make me feel bad for not being what you think. It was 25%. Not too shabby! I'm pretty happy with that. Though I think it might be inaccurate. My sister, who hasn't worked out in a year, is very thin (has a 24" waist, really narrow ribs etc) has a bf of 13%. Apparently you can't give blood if you're less than 15%. So she's unhealthy skinny, though to look at her, she isn't. She's definately got some chub in the thigh/butt. She's really normal looking. I bet the machine is off by a good 3% at least (I bet I'm 28%). Anyway. It was interesting.

The girl is measuring us and is all spazzy and loud. measures my sister's thigh and was like, "oh there's your jiggle. Just a little jiggle, but that's ok, guys like that. there's always room for Jello!" Weird. Measures my chest and was like "you got the boobs in the family obviously" and so on. Then she's teaching the exercises and at least gives slight variations to sis and me based on our obvious strength difference. So I wait on the bike while she shows Sis around, no big deal, then my turn. She does 1 move of the machine or whatever then says you try, I do one, she watches American Idol while I do, then is like "good job, now next is..." There's 22 things, half are machines, half are like jumping jacks or abs on a ball etc. She doesn't write down what we're supposed to do, we're just supposed to remember next time we come in. She randomly starts screaming about American Idol and singing periodically while showing us stuff. She is all "oh geez you guys are way too young to get married! Well I guess people are getting married younger again, that's ok I guess as long as you stay married, too many people are getting divorced". Yeah that's what my sister wants to hear before her wedding. Nice. She shows us exercises that are not safe or helpful. Like overextension sit ups. Like arch your back way over then up. or extend your legs and bring them down to the floor. Fine, but didn't mention keep your back pushed against the mat and belly button sucked in. Just had really poor technique on everything.

Most of the other women were really out of shape, overweight mom type people. (which is good that they're exercising, I'm in favor of that) but the things they were doing were so inappropriate for their fitness level and really won't help them lose fat at all. (she mentioned I've got some pudge in the belly, which is true and didn't offend me really, just a strange thing to just say to somebody, anyway, so she focused on ab exercises for me. That makes no sense. But doing more crunches, I will not burn off belly fat!!!!!!!!!!)

Anyway, so aside from hating her and thinking she was teaching things poorly and feeling bad for people who didn't know better like me, it wasn't horrible. After she showed it, I did my circuit once. (there was a thing that said switch stations every 40 seconds, some days it's 60, some it's 30. you work out for 30 minutes) Anyway, I did my circuit one through the whole thing, it was all too easy. after the 40 seconds I was warm and heart rate up, but my muscles weren't tired, I felt like maybe after a brisk walk. I guess I was in better shape than most of the clients (she even commented and assumed I must teach aerobics, and I got to say, not yet, but I'm taking a class in Feb!). Sis liked it though, she doesn't work out, and there's a locationg right by her house, and we can get a cheaper deal $35 a month. Plus it's got a steam room and tanning and stuff. I just feel like I'm more advanced than it. Plus that lady was annoying and I have a hard enough time liking nice people (HA! I'm such a bitch).

The place that's sore on me today are my sides, there were a lot of side twists and crunches and just stand on this lazy susan thing and twist side to side. I usually avoid that stuff because I get thicker from it, but I guess it would be a definate weakness of mine. Interesting.

Hubby wasn't feeling all that supportive about me teaching last night. Sorta sucked. But here's his point of view which I understand. First he hinted that he might be jealous or worried if I spend all this time in a gym looking at gym guys and being an instructor so people would be looking at me. Fair enough, but I think it's really he's jealous that I'll be doing that and he won't. I think it's sort of the sabatoge thing you get with girlfriends, like if they're on a diet you bring them cake ya know? You don't want somebody doing better than you. And hubby really doesn't want to lose weight enough to do anything serious about it, so sort of doesn't want me to lose weight and get in shape ya know?

PLUS, he's sort of nervous that I won't do things like make supper and clean the house any more. He admitted it's selfish but still feels like that. However he thought it would be like every night, when it's only going to be like 2 nights a week or something. Plus it would replace the 2 nights I go to class if I'm teaching.

AND he sort of felt like it wasn't fair that I got to go out, get a side job make money, when he has to finish the basement and doesn't get paid for that. THAT one hit me a bit. I do feel guilty that he has to finish the basement. He's been offered tons of times little side jobs of building sheds for money and stuff. So I understand that one. Sort of. At the same time, he ISN'T finishing the basement. He's been doing it for a year and we have a closet built basically. I said we could hire somebody but he doesn't want to do that. At the same time, as a couple, it's sort of his thing he can do for us for now, I'm sure it won't be fair once we have kids and I do something there. Or that I make supper all the time, from now until we die, whereas once the basement's done, he's done. He's acknowledged all this before and knows it's sort of superficial and selfish, but you can't help how you feel. Plus it's a lot of work to finish a basement. Physical work, and he's got a physical job that he puts in long hours at. So he's tired. I get that. And he said that he still wants me to do this and it's great that I have been offered this and people reckognize that I'll be good at it and everything, this is just how he feels.

So I think I reassured him that I would still take care of the house and supper and everything. It wouldn't change much from how it is now where I'm gone a couple hours a few nights a week. Only I'd be getting paid. And yeah I'd sort of like to keep some of that money just for me, but we can arrange something too.

PLUS then I did a great overhaul of the house really quickly and helped him in the basement for an hour. And then I made him get out a calendar and we scheduled out basement goals. I think mostly having the huge task of "finish the basement" was sort of frustrating him (sort of like "lose 30 lbs"?) so we broke it into little steps and then looked at the calendar to see when he could get each one done. I think that helped a lot, and made him really excited to work on it. For instance, by this weekend, we're going to have all the "stuff" out and into the garage. (he currently has no room to work so we're going to sacrifice the garage until it's done). Then by the end of february he's going to have the whole thing framed and insulated or something. The whole basement will be done by July with the exception of the bathroom, which will be the end of summer. Cool huh? When we were done making that, he thanked me for making him do it. Aww.

It basically means that he'll be working on that most nights of the week and at least one weekend day. I get to help when I can, (hauling stuff outside, painting etc) but mostly he's alone or with his buddies who know what they're doing. But I think that will help him almost want me to be gone more, so he can focus down there, we wouldn't see each other anyway. (not that we see each other much now, but that's on his end with hockey or going out with friends or napping, but I still have supper ready for him!)

Anyway, I'm a little disappointed that he wasn't excited for me. But he was happy for me, just also nervous about how it would affect him. I get this, I'm like that too, (though I usually try to put the happy face on first!). But I guess that's why I've got you guys right? Your encouragement and excitement really was perfect so thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

Ugh, what a downer post. I hate it. Now that you're done, re-read the first 2 paragraphs, they were happy and exciting!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

OMG OMG OMG OMG

SO I just got an email and then called Ashley from World Gym who got my name from Kim and heard that I was interested in taking the STEP instructor course and teaching at the gym!!! I am so excited. We've got an interview set up for 6:45 on Thursday. EEEEKKKK!

HOW DO YOU GO TO AN INFORMAL INTERVIEW TO BE A STEP INSTRUCTOR??? Like what do you even wear? Should I bring a resume even though there's nothing fitness on it? There's teaching stuff but mostly engineering. And seriously, what should I wear? Probably just what I wear to work, like khaki's and a nice tshirt and bunnyhug? (I heard interviews should be 1 step up from what you'd wear to work, like a mechanic goes one step up from dirty jeans, a lawyer goes one step up from a suit [a tux? 3 piece suit?] so on, so what's 1 step up from workout wear?) Maybe my nicer work clothes, but still running shoes?

ANYWAY, guess what she said? That I DON'T need to have the SPRA training (2 courses and CPR) before I can teach, I can do it with ONLY the BTS training. Meaning, I can do it with just the $240 course! So I could do that for awhile, see if I like it, not rush around trying to get all these coarses ASAP. Sweet! And she said they've got lots of instructors doing that right now, some have both, some have just the other etc. I think if I really like it I'd want to get the other training as well, but I can give it a trial run first.

And in her email she was like "so you want to teach? Awesome because we need a new step teacher" but on the phone she sounded like there was already a lot of people doing the instructor course (or maybe she said NOT a lot of people...). So I don't know if this is a job interview like there's competition, or if it's an informal interview like she said in the email... Oh well. either way, I am a good person and good teacher, and would work hard etc etc, I can only be myself in the interview either way. Just one way I'd get nervous about it. No point in that right? I'm going to post her whole email so you guys can be all excited too and tell me how you gauge her to be (am I a shoe in or what?)

"Hi Randi,

I was passed your contact info from Kim, and I understand you are interested in teaching for World Gym? M is our Fitness Director at World Gym and I'm more or less her little helper so you'd be dealing with the both of us. If you are available we would like to have you come into the gym for a little informal interview just so we can meet you, answer any questions you might have and show you around the facility. I work during the day so evenings or weekends would work best for me, but either way just let us know when you're available and we'll schedule something in. I don't know if you have been to World Gym yet, but it is a beautiful facility with lots of little perks for the instructors too :)

Kim said you were interested in taking the Group STEP training?? That would be awesome as we could use another step instructor. We are hosting training on Feb 21st & 22nd (right at the gym). Cost is $240 for the training and once you are certified and teaching World will reimburse $100 towards the cost of training.

Feel free to give me a call #### or just pop me a email. You could also get ahold of M.at ####.


Hope to see you soon!

A"


SOO? sounds good right? (off to my personal training now! yay!)

interesting posts

Does that make you think i'm talking about my own posts? Like I'm calling myself interesting? Actually the opposite. I want to compliment you guys on your interesting posts and topics. I often find myself leaving huge comments on people blogs and could say much much more about a topic (sorry Vanessa for such a long comment today!) but when it comes to my own posts, I even bore myself sometimes! i'll try and be more interesting and thought provoking.

but not right now. recap of yesterday:

not too hungry so I ate just a small supper, a few roasted sweet potato chunks (canola spray and rosemary, cook in casserole dish for 30 minutes, soo good!), 2 cubes from a pork souvlaki, and a big plate full of broccoli and cauliflower in a bit of cheese sauce.

Stupid hubby started watching the Dark Knight which I have not seen yet, but I had to go to class in the middle of! I can't stand that! some movies require a big deal to be made, not just watch 10 minutes here and there. Grr.

Anyway, went to weight class. Pushed nice and hard. I think I have to work a bit more on form for my squats and lunges. Once I start to fatigue I get nervous that there's going to be lots more and I'll be too tired so I just do them a bit easier, don't go all the way down and don't focus on my muscles (because that makes it hurt more, but that's also the point). Anyway, did a good workout, legs were jello after squats, tummy died after abs, but everything feels pretty good today. If I tense some muscles I can tell I worked out, nothing hurts. Which is good for a change because I want to give my all with my personal trainer today. Should be fun.

Also talked to my instructor about taking the step instructor thing. Gonna do it. I do need to have the other classes as well, so it's the $1000 option, but she said she would hire me to teach at the gym she works at in the city (apparently she's got that power) AND said we could add another community class where I live. So that would be at least 2 gigs, (2 nights a week?) minimum that I could teach, help make the money back. Oh plus she said that her gym pays for half of the training of the one class, so takes off a couple hundred bucks. Plus I'm looking into work paying for my CPR, not sure about that yet. I sort of don't want to tell them why I want it.

So a recap of what I need:
theory course (and test)
group training course
CPR and First Aid
Step specific course

Each of those is $200-$300. GULP!

Anyway, the theory course is offered not this weekend, but next (31st) so I feel like I should really jump on it and take it (not sure when it's offered again!) Then next would be the step course in Feb, then the group course in March I think. CPR is offered quite often so I could take it sort of whenever. I guess since those work out and are in quick enough order, that I should sign up for them and get some training under my belt.

When I was talking to Kim after class this other girl was there, (the one who I complained about before being all competetive with me, using same weights and talking about running etc.), I guess she knows Kim from something else. Anyway, that girl was all like "I'd love to teach a class like this one [weights], not sure about step" (she doesn't take the step class) and Kim said "yeah it's a lot of work, it's not cheap and you don't make money at it. But it's a lot of fun, Randi you should totally take the weight instructor course when it's offered after the step one!" sort of just blowing that girl off! ha! and she said "it's a really tough weekend training" and the girl said "yeah your endurance must be really challenged" and Kim said "yeah, but Randi you'll have no problem with that". I wonder if she noticed this girl "competing" with me and has chosen me as her favorite or something. Score! Teacher's pet. In your face other girl!

hehe.

Not much else to talk about. Pretty excited now that i've made my decision and am really going to do this. gonna go look stuff up online about it now over lunch! (and eat my salad I brought, YUM and yay for a salad, time to get serious about this pudge!)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Monday plan

Hey dudes,
so first a quick recap of my weekend. Then the plan for the week.

Friday night apparently we were having company. I didn't know about it. I knew that the guy was coming, but not his wife too. So instead of having the night to myself like I love, I had to entertain this girl who has too much drama in her life. Granted it's not her fault, but I wouldn't be talking so freely and openly about personal issues like she is. She deals with things poorly and just bitches about stuff all the time. Anyway, after listening to as much as I could, and playing with our puppy's to exhaustion, we watched the Sound of Music. Sweet. She's never seen it yet is helping put on the production at the school she teaches at or something. And it's a long movie so it killed the entire time the guys were at hockey.

oh, I should say that I deep fried french fries (since I thought it was a bunch of guys coming over, burgers and fries, but turned out it was just this couple.) anyway, I didn't eat a ton or anything and blotted them off well. I let the oil cool over night, and the next morning I was so naseated by everything about that oil and fries! It was horrible. I felt completely sick to my stomach every time I tried to clean up. It made me think of what morning sickness must be like, every smell just hurt. Luckily I didn't have to hang around it for long.

Saturday morning I got up and hit the treadmill first thing. Did 30 minutes, varying incline. I think that's what's killing me, I'm used to just flat, even when I was at my peak of running. I was very tired and sweaty after (and slightly sick feeling) so I lay down on the living room floor and slept for an hour. Weird. Got up and had to shower and head into the city to get together with my girlfriends for some visiting. Another puppy date.

We're trying to organize a ladies group or a splurge group or something. But I can tell already it's going to be really tough. Me and these 2 other girls have completely conflicting schedules, so what's it going to be like with 10 people? Plus we were having a hard time coming up with people we wanted to invite. We'll see though. We're supposed to figure it out this week.

So we just visited and ate artichoke dip. They were not as pumped as I wanted them to be about my fitness instructor thing. But that's ok. I think they can't really see it happening. Just one of those things we say.

Anyway, then I hit the drug store, bought a bunch of random things I always forget to buy and headed home to COOK! I semi-thawed out (so I could get them apart and cut them, they were still frozen, just softer) a warehouse pack of steaks, a warehouse pack of pork tenderloin, and a giant bag of chicken breasts. while I did that I cooked up a package of italian sausage meat (which turns out I don't like, too greasy, basically ground seasoned pork), grilled some peppers, zucchini, onion, and carrots, cooked up some rotini and tossed it all together with some basil pesto. SOOO GOOD! I used tons and tons of veggies, so it was a lot of food. I saved enough leftovers in the fridge for a couple meals, and also froze 2 good sized meals worth.

Then the cooking. I made and froze:
lots of pork souvlaki
pork stir fry
a seasoned pork roast (I think asian flavoured or something)
steak stir fry
lots of steak in marinade
lots of marinated chicken
chicken stir fry
peanut chicken


Probably 16 good suppers at least. Like a month's worth of meals (we do lots of leftovers and just quick throw togethers like burgers or something). I was actually sore when I was done (my neck and feet). Took a good 4 hours. I was going to do meatballs too, but I only had frozen beef and thought it probably wasn't good to thaw and then freeze the meat. So I'll just wait until I buy fresh meat to make them.

Sunday we had plans to go for breakfast with my sister and her fiance. I thought we had a coupon at Grainfields but turns out it was only mon-fri. How am I supposed to use a buy one get one coupon for breakfast during the week? I can't, that's how. Anyway, I was debating for awhile on what to get, but decided on the belgium waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. I like it better than cupcakes or cake or pie or most anything. It was soo good. Not good for me, I got quite the sugar crash later on. but it actually kept me mostly full until a snack at 3:00 and then supper. My sister came over after breakfast and I helped her make a wedding budget (which she'd never done) and identified lots of the things she had to figure out still (and her wedding is actually approaching fairly quick, 4 months). She was driving me bananas with all her lack of plans for her wedding. So we figured that out mostly (you can have a great big giant wedding in SK for about $7500!) then worked on her invitations. Got the stamping parts of those about half done. Still has to do the words and printing, then slap these things on. Not too terrible.

Anyway, when she left for some reason I started watching Titanic. That's a long movie so that's all I did for the rest of the night! Well that and... I ran on the treadmill watching Titanic! Doesn't that seem weird? Like it should be something you do to comedies only? But I had no incline and set the speed nice and low and ran 5k and watched the middle of titanic. I actually managed to not need breaks or anything or look at the clock too often, so it was actually a good run.

Today I had to drop the SUV off to get the door fixed and picked up a Dodge Calibre courtesy vehicle. Anybody have one of these? I really like it so far. (we're thinking of getting a new car in the spring).

So now the week plan:
Tonight, fitness class (weights). Gonna talk to my instructor a bit more about how to go about being an instructor. I'm sort of leaning towards getting the instructor courses, not so much the BTS step course, I think if I teach I'd feel much better if I was teaching what I made up to my own songs sort of wherever I wanted. With BTS you have to pay like a license fee and buy your music from them and only certain gyms teach that stuff. Plus it's like an extra $250 to do that on top of the just instructor stuff. HOWEVER, that's the only course Kim really talked to me about and sort of pushed me towards. If I only need that class, and it could be in place of the other courses, then I would do it, teach sooner, see if I like it, then take the rest. So I guess I gotta talk to her. That's the plan tonight. (I'm nervous about it!)

Then at the wedding show I went to a couple weeks ago, I entered a draw and won! It's not a great prize, they're giving it to tons of people (if not everyone who entered, good for business kinda thing). 2 weeks free at this new gym (so basically nothing right there, they all have 2 week free trials) AND a session with a personal trainer (for you and a friend). So my sister and I are doing that tuesday after work. She said it's gonna be a full thing, like she'll tour the gym with us, show us how to use things, weigh us, take our measurements (I'm hoping body fat, not just inches) and then build a program for each of us. Pretty cool huh? It's going to be weird going with my tiny sister, we never really talk weight or fat or anything and she's never been more than probably 120 lbs. (however I am probably 3 times stronger than her!) So Tuesday we're doing that.

Wed, class again.

the rest of the week has no plans yet. I realized I really need to finish my thesis edits and get that done so I can really really officially be done school. So my goal is to by the end of the weekend have that ready to hand off again.

Other goal, exercise 6 days this week. (did it last week, beat hubby, and he had to clean my car inside and out, SWEET!) Fridays seem to be toughest for me. Not sure why. But I got both weekend days in! Let's have a repeat of that.

Get those 2 done, that's all I've got for now. I'm getting much better at the eating too, if I find something that's really tripping me up, I'm getting rid of it. (hid the dino-sours on the weekend). Plus the fridge is stocked with healthy and yummy treats. Making plans for a nice loss this week!

very cool video

Friday, January 16, 2009

Back to school?

So last night I looked a bit more into becoming a fitness instructor in my province. It's actually a LOT of classes/courses. And this one that Kim invited me to take isn't even on the radar. That one's a gym specific one to be able to teach the BTS classes, specifically the GroupStep class. It's a bit confusing on the website what the other requirements are since there are options. Basically you need to either do a theory class (ranges from $100 to $250 based on location) or just pass the test ($75) (class optional? there's a home study option($195), take a group training class either land or water (as in aquafitness, might be cool, but not now) ($230), and get first aid/CPR certified ($150). Grand total of between $555 and $705! NOT including the $250 class in February. So like $1000!!! Cha-ching! Say I teach 4 classes a month and make like $100 a month (no idea if this is reasonable, are you paid by the hour? That's a huge rip-off then since each student pays about $5/class, I'd say you should get half of that. but it probably doesn't work that way, anyway...) I'd have to do it for almost a full year to even make my money back. ew! (There goes my tax refund?) There might be other ways to do this but that's the first I found.

It isn't really a terrible amount of training. I'd guess like 3 or 4 weekend courses and you'd have it all. Actually checking the dates on some of them and I could have everything done by like mid-March. By my birthday. CRAZY! I can't wait for Monday to talk to Kim again, or I hope she emails me this weekend, but she probably forgot or she would have already. EEK! So like by April I could be teaching. Wowza.

Long night

Way way long night. And I went to bed early. Good thing, I was light's out at 10:00, just when hubby was leaving for hockey. Phone wakes me up at 2:00. Hubby had hit the ditch and was stuck (boy has terrible driving luck, this is his second accident in a month.) Roads were icy and I guess we need new tires. So anyway, I go pick him up in the middle of the night. He's stuck right outside work so I dropped him off this morning and somebody there can get him out. But he was very pissed off and angry about this. Plus embarrassed because everyone at work would see this. I completely sympathized with this. But told him it's never as big of a deal as you think it will be. (it's true!) So we get home at 2:30am and try and go back to bed, hubby has a shower since he was all wound up. I just can't fall asleep again. Wasn't even thinking of the accident. (stupid cold sore meant I couldn't sleep on my side like I usually do because my cheek pushed into it and hurt). I layed awake for probably an hour (I can't see the clock from my side of the bed). Hubby was snoring when I fell asleep and he says he was looking at the clock at 5:00. Ugh. Then I have to get up early to drop hubby off before I go to work and he wanted to be there early enough that just his one friend would be there and help him, not the whole office. So I dropped him off at like 7:30 then came to work.

Now here I am at work. Not really tired, but just not able to focus. It's going to be a long day.


Oh, WI, I gained 0.6. I'm at 145.0. Hubby forgot to WI so he'll do it tomorrow morning. He kicked my butt in the exercise again, 8.5 hours last week. (more than an hour a day!?!) but he had 5 hockey games giving him 7.5 hours right there (not the norm!). His other hour was shovelling the sidewalk two days in a row for 1/2 hour each (which I know he overestimated his time for, plus it was light fluffy snow, not heavy labour). I even bugged him about how standing in net for 1.5 hours should be the same as 30 minutes on the treadmill since mine is so much harder than his. But then he was all like "well you wanna try it?" which isn't fair because there's no way I could actually try it (his team would not be cool with a first time girl goalie for a game!) nor would I ever put his stinky equipment on! I'm still pretty happy with my exercise for the week though, 5 hours. Not shabby!

Anyway, gonna try and get through the day and make it fly. Maybe because I came in early I can leave early and not feel bad. Oh, I'm going to buy new runner's after work (30% off at Brainsport so the regular $150 shoes are just $100, hard to believe I justify that much for running shoes!) Oh and I stopped at Costco on my way home yesterday and bought a new exercise tank top that hides not hugs the rolls I'm currently sporting. I was going to buy a whole new outfit (coat and pants too, seriously if you have a Costco, check out the Tuff Athletics clothing, love it.) but put it back in the end because I wanted to earn it. AND I didnt' want to have to buy the large when I plan on not fitting that for much longer. Also bought a ton of healthy food, easy proteiny and fibery things, (almonds, yogurts, cheese sticks, fibre cereal).

Tomorrow evening (or maybe tonight) I plan on doing a lot of meal prep stuff. I'm not doing it together with my girlfriends any more, just visiting because our time is limited. I still want to pack up some slow cooker meals and just throw on the grill or in the oven stuff. Somebody said something about eating frozen cooked meat, that's not how I do it (usually) I leave the meat raw, just put the seasonings and other ingredients with it, so it's ready to cook right out of the freezer. I'll try and remember to post what I end up doing if you're interested.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

PAIN

I've got a cold sore in the corner where my bottom lip meets my gums. HURTS SO BAD! I am actually in more pain than I am comfortable being in. Makes me feel like a wuss. But I can't eat. I'm really hungry and I can't eat. (It doesn't really hurt when I just sit here and don't use my mouth, but that's not possible while eating). I guess it's good for the old diet though. I even put on my sore mouth medicine (basically like the stuff they give you at the dentist before they give you the needle, just really mild numbing stuff). Didn't work at all. boo hoo. I guess I'll drink more tea.

SO excited!

Why do you ask?

Because my fitness instructor asked me if I would be interested in taking the fitness instructor course offered mid February to learn to teach the step class she teaches.

And the answer is YES! I am VERY interested!

How cool is that? (as I do with my hubby and my sister, I'm about to vent out the pros and cons, but I want the pros to win, so I need your comments to continue to talk me into it ok? help me dismiss my cons and reinforce my pros. tell me what I want to hear I guess)

The downside is this: it's only 1 of 2 classes I need to take. This is a specific how to teach this method of class. I still have to take the general fitness instructor course. This class alone is $250. The other class will probably be more.

HOWEVER, the way Kim (fitness instructor, it's much shorter to say her name!) described it, it sort of sounded like there's a good chance I'd be hired on to teach at the World's Gym that's putting it on. And if that happens, they refund you $100 of the class fee. Then I'd also be making money, so it would take a little bit, but it would eventually pay for itself.

Another con is that I'm sort of shy right? I don't know if I'd be able to be all pumpy and cue everyone, "4 more! 3! 2! Last one! Switch!" etc etc. HOWEVER, I am a really good teacher. When I taught labs at university I absolutely loved it. I did my prep work and then I wasn't nervous any more. Granted I wasn't jumping and sweating in front of them, but it was a subject I didn't really know that great, but I prepared and did well. And it's not just me saying I did well, I got glowing reviews from the students, they absolutely LOVED me. AND learned their stuff. Plus I adored teaching. I initially wanted to be a professor (but I am so done with theses!). I'm not sure, but teaching fitness classes me fill that need for me.

Big PRO - I'd be getting paid to workout! That's so cool! I also know a lot about fitness and nutrition and what works and what doesn't (doesn't mean I do it though right? But I know it!) I sometimes feel like I know more than Kim. She's sort of stuck in her thinking, from I guess early 90's or something. I know intervals are the best way to lose fat, but she sort of talks about fat burning zone and that sort of stuff which is a bunch of junk (you guys know that right? you burn a higher % of calories from fat in the lower HR zone, but more calories period in the higher zone which is what matters). Not sure if any of that would really be important, but I could definately emphasize how important exercise is, and how strongly I believe everyone should be doing strength training etc. I talk to my friends all the time about that so it wouldn't be a stretch to tell others.

Something that's sort of a downer though - I don't think I'm in good enough shape to teach fitness. Not just because when I take a class I want the instructor to look like my dream body. Silly yes, but it gives you the idea that if you take this class you'll look like that. At least to not have a buddha belly and muffin top (which I'm currently sporting). That makes me feel like taking this class can't even get rid of that so it's probably a waste of time. (I know this is all not fair as diet and other factors are involved but it's how my superficial mind works) I also don't know if I'm in good enough shape to talk through out a whole class. I can do the workouts no problem, but I don't have to speak. I guess I could lower the intensity for myself knowing I have to talk. I can probably work around that one.

The UPSIDE to that is, I've got over a month until this course to get in shape. a lot can happen in a month. That also is a super motivator, strict deadline, it'll be like training for a race. That's just huge in my mind. The day is coming no matter what, so I better get ready.

A sort of downer, well just a thinker is, is this really a good time to do this? I'd probably just be getting able to teach, maybe a month under my belt and then we'll be trying to get pregnant. I have no idea how long into pregnancy I'd be able to teach. Or would I even be teaching by the time it's too late? I know that you can exercise through a whole pregnancy and that you should. But I don't know how I'll be feeling or anything. But I don't think I would mind if I took a class from a pregnant instructor. It would be interesting at least. I think I don't really care about that one much though. Because at the same time, it would be a great thing to be able to go back to whenever I felt ready while I was on Maternity leave. Not to mention there are lots of pregnancy specific classes I might be able to teach, or baby and mommy classes. heck, it might actually be an UP!

I guess I never said it but I also feel like what if I can't do it or I change my mind or I fail at it or something. That's a lot of money if I'm not 100% on board with this. So I guess I have to figure out how on board I am. I know it's something that makes me excited thinking about, that I talked about wanting to do for more than a year. But it's still sort of scary. Sort of like having a crazy dream like climbing a mountain before you die. something you think would be cool but you'll do later. It's really making it real.

I want to do it, I think i'm just a bit scared. So talk me into it now please!!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

impatient

I stepped on the scale this morning. I don't think I should do that on not WI days anymore. I'm not in any sort of happy numbers and I think if I don't see a 5 lb loss I'm not going to be happy. And of course as it was midweek and my muscles were sore (and retaining water?) and I had a really bad eating weekend, the number was up from my START after new year's. I am doing well exercising and alright eating so there's not much more I can do except persevere. But it's hard. I want results NOW! Also, I'm becoming more aware of how I look. I didn't think 10lbs could creep on without me noticing but it did happen. You know how people's body image sometimes gets screwed up? Like anorexics who think they look fat? Or like when you see somebody who really REALLY should not be wearing that shirt as it creeps up constantly and exposes muffin top bare skin, yet they think they look good? I had that going on. (not that bad I hope!) but I thought I looked the same for the last 3 months, it was a gradual change (mostly). But if I compare myself now to pictures then, eek! Heck, I can't even wear the same clothes! Strange how I didn't notice it. I guess the bright side is I had plenty of body confidence.

Yesterday I did a weight workout upstairs watching tropic thunder again. My upper body is so much stronger than my lower/core. I don't think most people are like that. Then I went downstairs to run and watched half of a Mad Men episode. Running felt really hard so instead of my proper intervals, I did lazy intervals of walking/running. I think that's ok, eventually I'll be back to my old running self. Again, impatient.

Thought I should post my food which is my biggest stumbling block. b - half bowl of special k satisfaction, half bowl of some kind of corn flakes/granola combo cereal (can't remember the name!) that's maple nut flavoured. The special K has lots of protein and fibre, but the other tastes good. Mixed together the maple nut flavour is so strong, the whole things tastes like it. with milk of course. Too full for banana after so brought it to work.

snack - probably banana! hopefully that's enough.

lunch - salad with leftover fish and new soy and ginger salad dressing (it's light). Plus probably grapes, carrots and 100 cal pack of cookie things (I've been really munchy after lunch lately, need all kinds of finger food, the carrots do fill me up a lot though)

snack - 2 mini yogurts, apple

supper - I've got italian sausage meat thawed. Probably cook it up in a spicy pasta thing. REminds me I should buy some zucchini and peppers to cook with it.

Tonight I've got my step class/weight class. It's mostly cardio step but 1/2 hour of upper body weights at the end. Probably won't need anything after it. Maybe a glass of milk. Pretty sure it will be straight to bed with me!

An aside, hubby put my curtain hooks up last night (after much nagging I'll admit) so I'm going to try and put the curtains up before class.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Distraction

Hey dudes,
we've got donuts in the office! EEK! not gonna have one, not gonna do it, nope nope nope.

So I'm distracting myself with planning a trip! Woohoo! Feb 6-8 (just a long weekend but still), hubby and I are flying to Calgary and staying in a hotel and watching a Flames game. Flights, hotel and game are paid for by boss (well cost us $100 total), meals and in town travel are on us. One way to deal with this is the way I initially was, try and do everything cheaply. Take a shuttle to hotel and back, walk everywhere else.

BUT I was looking at costs from the company travel agent (she gets good deals!) and came up with another idea. A romantic get away! Sweet! And since I'm the planner of trips, hubby doesn't like doing things like that and I do, it could be a suprise for him! Eek! (not that he cares but maybe the gesture?) Like we could go out for a nice supper, order room service breakfast and get a hotel with a hottub etc. Spend the whole weekend in the hotel room...

Fun? Well for me, hubby would probably sleep the whole time (he's got a sleeping problem I think), anyway, I also picked a hotel with a gym so that could work for me right?

Anybody know anything about Calgary? We're going to stay downtown, 1 mile from saddledome, walking distance to shopping, Calgary tower etc etc. But it also turns out that renting a car for the weekend would only be $60, so that might be more than a cab all weekend right? I'm such a country bumpkin I don't know these things. Advice on in-town travel? Things to do? How to plan a romantic get away? (Tash, you've been on a few of those right?)

Good, donut craving has passed.

EDIT - Found out that the cheaper hotel has a spa attached, couples massage? He'd be up for that! (I even think it will be covered in our insurance if it's by a registered massage therapist!) On the other hand he could do his lame tv watching sleeping in and stuff while I do some kind of spa thing. oooh fun!

tues and genders

Last night's weight class was already easier than last week. Well it was the same class, and I did the same if not more weight, but it already felt easier. Thank goodness, it was super rough last week, hurting when I walked for 4 days! Got a bit of soreness today which is good because otherwise it was a waste.

I was talking with a girl in the class. The sort of person that makes me not really like meeting new people. She was really nice and friendly, but very competitive and doing that self depricating girl thing. She hadn't worked out in months basically (she was quite slim, pretty, a bit skinny-fat though, no muscle tone) and is "in the worst shape of her life". This summer she ran half marathonS. I mentioned that I ran a couple 10Ks this summer and she went on to say how "they're fun and easy huh? we would do those for our short runs". I guess I might have seemed competitive too, she said she just got a treadmill for Christmas and I said me too.

Then even though I just met her (well I'd seen her before but never talked right) she whispers to me about how this one girl in class is sooo ripped! she must be training for something or like a pro athlete or something. Well ok, yes she had an AMAZING body, basically looked like an olympian, plus really cute and sort of dorky looking, like she lost her balance doing lunges. So I was thinking the same things, but I didn't say anything to anybody about it. Just seems like not something you talk about with strangers, sort of gossipy (even though we didn't say anything mean or bad).

That was all before class. Then as soon as we started (I think) she saw me using 8 lb weights and ran to get a pair (she only had 5's before). Then used the same weights as me the whole time, and when I dropped in the middle of an exercise to the 5's or to nothing, she did it the rep right after me. I can completely understand this because I do it too, but I still like being the one who wins!

Another cool thing, the instructor saw I was using 5's so she borrowed my 3's. Then later on another exercise came to borrow them again and said "Randi you're much stronger than me, you can use the 5's". Sweet. (at least I had that over the other girl! hehe) Even though, truth is, the 5's were killing me and if I still had my 3's I'd have switched!

OH, the thing that she said that instantly put her in a "category" in my mind wasn't even fitness-y, just something I get from "girls" a lot. "oh you just finished your master's? Wow! What in? You're an ENGINEER!?! WOW! Good for YOU! That's really great! Wow!"
She might as well have said "oh gee! I couldn't handle all that math! I'm just a girl! hehehe!"

The thing is, there was a point where I FELT impressive, as a girl engineer (not just that but truth be told I was the top of my class!) then went and got my Master's as well. I sort of felt superior for a while. What humbled me was talking to a grandma (not mine, a friend). I told her I was in engineering, expecting her (an OLD lady) to be very impressed that girls were even allowed in or something. I just had this attitude telling her, basically waiting for her response. She was like "Oh that's nice, my grand-daughter is a professor of nuclear physics at that university" or something. Just, completely like "ok. that's what you do, so?"

So since then I realized that my job and my career path are just what I do. It's not impressive, nor more hoity-toity than say working at a school. People would be impressed with me for all the fancy math I can do or science stuff I know, but I am impressed that people could deal with know-it-all kids. Or a hair dresser, I have no idea how to even use a curling iron. Plus there are a lot more really impressive jobs out there. People just have different skills. Not to say I don't of course feel like I could learn to do anything (I have some arrogance, it's true). But that's what bothers me the most when people make a comment on the math thing. They could SO do the math I do, I wasn't born knowing it (not to mention can't even do simple adding in my head! I need a calculator or a piece of paper or something), I learned how to do it. I didn't just GET it. "Oh I could never do all that math! hehe" Anyone could learn it. It might take more time or you might have no interest in learning it, but don't put that attitude on!

Also, it's only girl's I get the attitude from. There are lots of guys who'll say "yeah, I hated math" or basically the same thing the girls say, but there's something different about how they say it. Like they're admitting to a character flaw or something, not pointing out that I'm the strange one. That's why until recently I always said I hated girls (some of you have changed my mind!)

hm, strange tangent. that's ok, not much else to say.

Hitting the treadmill tonight. 1 hour of exercise, split between weights and running. Hubby had hockey again last night. It's going to be tough to keep up with him exercise-wise! (oh, ps, we count the whole game because he's on the whole time, goalie. I think that an hour of standing in the net is not comparable to an hour on the treadmill, but if anybody else knows a goalie, you just can't say that to him!)

Monday, January 12, 2009

make ahead meals

So I think this weekend I'm getting together with friends Saturday and prepping a pile of meals to freeze! Sweet! If you're not doing anything and want to share the fun come on over! (or plan to do the same thing at the same time at your own house!)

Stemmed from talk of creating a ladies club with a few girlfriends for get togethers every month, host chooses activities. Anyway, one friend brought up this store that offers meal prep I guess. (you go there and pay so much and assemble all these meals with their recipes and ingredients). But even the cheapest deal is like $25 per meal (serves 4, so not terrible I guess, but we live on like $10 a day for food for both hubby and I, for all meals, so this is really extravagent). Anyway, I said I had a cookbook that was basically the same thing doing it at your own home (called The Big Cook, good if you want to check it out). So we're going to try a couple things out at my house Saturday. My one friend A, did not feel that $25/meal was too much so was going to probably do that also. And the recipes she suggested for this weekend somewhat show that (stuffed chicken breasts and meatloaf with feta, very good I'm sure, but those would be sort of treat foods for me I think, I was going to freeze chicken with a bunch of italian dressing for marinade ya know?)

So I'm putting the call out there to you folks. Do any of you make ahead and freeze meals? If so what are your favorites? I think we're making meatballs for sure. Plus I've got a bulk pack of steaks that I need to use in something, I could just marinate them or we could do some sort of recipe with them. I don't really want stews or soups or pasta sauces, but more main course meats. If you give me ideas I promise I'll share what we did (recipes included!)

the ugly

  • went to a 12-course greek meal yesterday with my family for a "Christmas party". So much food! I had a couple drinks too. Really ugly.
  • the scale basically showed me how ugly this morning. up 3 lbs from friday!
  • also contributing to that is the work birthday cake friday
  • Oh, and also the peanut butter cookies I made (had to really try out this PB2) and then ate half a dozen of.
  • Can't find anything in my closet to wear any more. Super ugly.
  • My once too big jeans, my current only jeans that are remotely flattering that I can wear, now have a ripped crotch. You know you're too fat when you rip a big hole in your pants.
  • Saw some pictures of me from Christmas. ugly.

Enough is enough right? I gave away most of the cookies, gonna throw the rest in the freezer for emergency friends over situations. Planning on salad for supper. I've got 2 classes this week. On my off days I'm running on my treadmill AND doing weights. No plans yet for next weekend. NOT going to eat out, AM going to workout and meal prep.

Brainsport is having their below zero sale this weekend. Minimum 30% off most shoes in store, if it's colder that -30, you get that much percent off instead (won't be, weekend's supposed to finally warm up). Anyway, I think I might go get myself a new pair of properly fitted shoes for $100 instead of $150. Did it last year and they lasted me through the summer races etc. The cheapies (though still $70?) I bought this fall aren't feeling as great.

Also gonna wrangle up some kind of shelf at eye level to put the laptop for when I'm on the treadmill. I downloaded a whole bunch of seasons of the office and entourage and stuff so I can watch that when working out. Little motivation.

Anyway, feeling very determined now. Unfortunately at work there's not much I can do. I can not do some things, not eat too much. But not doing things is much touger than doing things. Plus the food has already been packed for the day, choices are over. I guess I should just distract myself, back to work.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Hubby won - for now

I lost 1.4 lbs this week, to 144.4 (still a gross number but can't complain about the loss right?!)
Hubby lost 1.8 lbs! PLUS he beat me on the exercise, (his 1.5 hour hockey games are tough to compete with!) he had 5 hours, I had 3.5 hours. Both of us did really great and let's hope it continues!

He'll also have a big edge over me on the exercise next week, he's got a hockey tournament! (Minimum 4.5 hours from just hockey). but both my exercise classes get going next week too, so I should manage a bit higher. We'll see how it goes!

Yesterday I only did my weights, not the treadmill. Instead I took down the Christmas decorations and put it all away, set up and started a back-up with my external hard drive (came in the mail, yay!), taught hubby how to download movies (shh!) and went to bed early with a book that came in from the library (the Tipping Point, so far so good).

Not too many plans for the weekend. Want to do a scrub of the bathroom, maybe some scrapbooking or something. Mostly I want to get a start (maybe finish?) on my thesis edits. One of my committee members forgot his edits during my defense and isn't replying to emails now so my supervisor said I can just do without his edits. Sweet. Still probably tons to do, but now only 2/3!

Sunday my parents are coming up. Mom and I are going with Sis to a wedding show. Should be fun. Get ideas at least. The boys are (maybe?) going to finally hook up our PVR dish. It's supposed to be decent weather Sunday and there's only a few more weeks until free tv is gone. Then for supper Dad is having his "company" Christmas party. The company consists of he and mom, when we were kids we'd help with office stuff and get paid so we're considered employees. and if it's a work party then it's tax deductible or something right? Anyway we're going for Indian food I think. Should be interesting, most of my family is not really into cultural food.

Oh, and seems this style of bridesmaid dress is popular huh? These ones are sort of an emerald green color (well not really, but bold like that, more olive than emerald, but really a bright green color, no pastels for me!). And I've come to grips with the size, I do think they want to nail me on the alterations, plus they have no idea if I'm really capable of losing any weight by then do they? Well I am going to lose weight, and it IS going to need alterations, but I'm not going to have them done there. :p

Ok, well hope everyone has a good weekend. SO glad it's friday, though the week has really flown by for me for some reason!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

We got dresses!

We found bridesmaid dresses for my sister's wedding. They're the most gorgeous green ever. And I look stunning in green. It's a fact. So I have to be happy just for that.

The dresses are knee length, strapless, have that side gathering thing that I guess is universally flattering. I liked other dresses better but the color of this one was perfect and everyone else liked it best. Interesting thing I found out yesterday, droopage aside, my boobs are much lower than the average person's. We tried on a dress (both the other bridesmaid and I at the same time, they had 2 samples, same size, oh yeah, this girl and I are the same size) and it was way skanky and revealing on the other girl, but looked really nice on me. Couldn't even see my bra, where as the other girl was boob city. Tracked it back to my low boobs. Interesting, can't say it's really something I'm pleased to have, but I guess it hasn't hurt me yet.

The dress is also lace-up in the back which is wonderful. Means no alterations (if I can help it!). However they measured us up and I wasn't pleased. I knew I had gained weight in December right? all my clothes were tight and my jeans that used to need a belt were almost snug. Ok I'm working on it. But maybe not the best time to buy a dress? The dresses we were trying on were 8's and they were a bit tight. But I figured that when I got back to my fighting weight that'd be exactly what I need. However they measure me, and tell me a 12. Same exact thing that happened with my wedding dress! Boo them! There's not a piece of clothing I own that's a 12, and even at my biggest I wasn't a 12 in dresses. We compromised - siting the lace up - on a 10. It's sort of embarrassing to tell people that you plan on losing weight for the wedding. First because I'm always embarrassed when talking (to real life people) about my weight. Second because I'm sure everyone says that!

anyway, hopefully with the lace-up I can get down to an 8 size, and just lace it up tighter. My wedding dress I ordered the 9 (the one I was trying on) and then when my wedding came I had to lace it so tight the sides were touching, it didn't look lace-up at all. But it still fit I guess!

I can add another 30 minute run to my log for yesterday. I really feel out of shape, I did the conversion and tried to run most of it at my old pace (10.5 km/hr was my slow) and it was UNCOMFORTABLE! I had to take a walk break at 15 minutes, but then added time to make it 30 minutes of running. Ugh. Oh well I guess I'll eventually get back there right?

Got everythign on my list done except the taking down Christmas decorations, but that was because hubby was sleeping with all the lights off on the couch in the living room and yelled at me for making noise (to which I yelled back, sorry for being awake and alive when it's normal for people to be awake - 8:00 at night! I'd understand if it was 11:00pm or something, but seriously, go to the bedroom!) Instead I went to the bedroom and talked on the phone for an hour to my mom and sister and brother. Then did a bit of laundry and house cleaning and then bed. Love being productive. But I didn't realize that the People's Choice Awards were on and that I missed them. I like having mindless tv like that on when I do stuff in the evening. oh well. It didn't hurt me to miss it either.

Tonight all the shows are back on so it will be a slack night. Treadmill's downstairs so can't watch tv and run, but I think I'll do some strength stuff during Grey's and maybe skip ER to jog. We'll see. I'm doing awesome at hitting the treadmill every day, but I don't have to do that, I don't want to burn myself out. However now I've got a little green dress I've got to fit into for motivation!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Feeling oh so nice

Well when I'm not feeling fat I'm feeling oh so nice, because I'm feeling like I'm really doing something about it! There's that catch 22 thing again, sucks when you're out of shape and fat but it is great for making improvements!

Yesterday I got home pretty late after getting groceries, lots of healthy stuff, a few treats (not bad, just like pudding snacks and cans of stew). Hubby was home at 4:00 but did not make supper. He did do some other chores, but supper just isn't on his radar. He saw the hamburger meat I thawed on the cupboard but didn't know what I wanted to do with it so just made himself a sandwich instead. Duh. So I also had 2 tuna bunwiches, glass of milk and too many slices of fruitcake (I love my Christmas fruitcake, don't understand where it got such a nasty reputation from). I did realize I shouldn't be eating it (as I shoved it in my mouth) but it made me get up and change and put my workout clothes on and do a beginner turbulence training workout. I chose the beginner because I was quite sore still from my monday class and wanted to ease into it. It was over quick and then I did some intervals on the treadmill. Bad thing about my treadmill is that you have to push the button once for every 0.1 mile/hr increase. So to go from my jog at 6 to a run at 8 I had to push it 20 times, then to recover with a walk at 4 I had to push it 40 times! I think I can set up a custom program, I'll look into this tonight. Anyway, did a good 15 minute of hard intervals then a cool down walk with Daisy. She gave me such a face when we went upstairs that I took her outside for a quick walk too just to get the mail. I think the horrible weather might be ending soon (like colder than -30 with the windchill for a high!) so she'll start having more fun.

So basically I did my workout, then cleaned up around the house a bit. The house was super spotless for the party on the weekend so I'm trying hard this month to keep it in company presentation mode. (no more emergency cleaning when somebody calls that they're coming over, we'll always be ready!)

Hubby basically napped on the couch until bedtime yesterday. He's not feeling well. Then of course today I start feeling a bit of a cold coming on. booo! I hate being sick but it's amazing how you take for granted that nothing's wrong huh?

Anyway, today I'm leaving work early and going bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister for her wedding. I hate that I'm going to have to try on dresses with this extra 10lbs on, hopefully I can figure out how to order a dress that will fit me in June without tons of alterations. Then I'm headed home.

I want to be more productive this year (hard to quantify) so I'm going to start making a list for at least a couple nights a week of all the things I want to get done:
- make supper, pack leftovers for lunch
- jog 30 minutes on treadmill
- take down Christmas decorations/clean house
- get new contact for fixing my mixer, try calling


That's it for have to do. writing that out makes me think it might be a better idea to do weekly tasks. Since I'm not sure how much I can get done in a night. Other things I want to do this week:
- Book my first appointment from my Christmas gift certificate*
- send away massage receipts for insurance
- hang up new curtains in living room
- Finish all laundry in basement
- Start final thesis edits
- track down external hard drive, connect and back-up computers


There are a few other things I'd like to do but I need hubby's help and he's got hockey every night for the rest of the week so we'll see.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Goal Post

Goals for 2009. I won't say resolutions, because I like goals. And I want them to be something I can either check or X at the end of the year. I did it or not, not something where I did most of the time. That makes it hard to come up with these. But I did it last year and I was conscious of them all year which is great (I knew I had to do another charity thing after August for example). So here goes.

1. Get pregnant by the end of the year. There ya go, with that on my plate, it's sort of hard to make a lot of other things because I don't know much about being pregnant (can't have any weight loss goals for the end of the year now can I? also hard to say how many races I can do etc, how much money I can save up, what holidays we can do). I think I will allow a reassessment of goals when I do get pregnant because I'm sure I'll want to make pregnancy goals (save this much for baby, exercise so often etc).

2. Weigh less than 135 when I do get pregnant. I'd like that to be the top end of my comfort range. I was 1 lb away before and I loved it. Should hopefully be able to get there soonish and win my challenge with hubby. So I'm going to change that to weigh less than 135 by my 27th birthday in March. 10 lbs in almost 3 months. doable.

3. Donate $200 to charity over the year. Not just the kids who knock on the door to sell chocolates, but find a charity that I believe in and seek them out.

4. Exercise 150 days this year. (about 3 days a week, fine on regular weeks but tough on vacations, holidays, when I'm sick etc.) with this goes keeping track of my exercising. Blog will be good for this.

5. Have $1000 in my personal account at the end of the year. (we get $400/month for personal, and it includes clothes, make-up, scrapbook supplies, gym memberships, hair cuts etc. I always spend it because I have it, but I don't need this stuff. I want to save up for my big ticket wants - a piano, a holiday in Europe, etc).

6. Read 6 books by the end of the year. I used to read all the time, (6 books a week sort of thing) but it took over my life, I'd do nothing but read. So I gave it up. But I got books for Christmas a year ago I haven't read yet. That's ridiculous. I read 1 book all last year, and it was between Christmas and New Year's.


I want to say be more efficient, stop procrastinating, keep a clean house, be more proactive, don't be lazy. But there's no way to be accountable with that sort of stuff. So it won't go here, it'll go on the weekly or monthly plans. I dunno, I don't really feel great about this list. But again, I'm quite happy with how everything is going my life. I don't really think I need to change to many things over the next year. Plus it's hard to plan for a year when there's going be a big upheaval in the middle of it. Well we'll go with this. Plus I think I'd like to do some more monthly and weekly goals. Things like make sure the house is clean before I go to bed, put laundry away as it's done. Little things I can keep track of for a short time but couldn't put on my 2009 list. Any thoughts anybody? Am I wussing out compared to last time?

regular post

not to be confused with goal post coming later (haha, goal post...)

Had weight class yesterday. So hard. I hate being out of shape, but at the same time, you make so much progress so quickly. Nice. Mostly just the legs we dying yesterday. She had a really tricky squat and lunge track. yuck, I hate lunges, I have to focus so hard to feel it in the right places. I'm going to work on those at home where I can do them at my own pace to build up my strength in them. Hopefully tonight. Set up my little gym corner in the basement with my weights. do a solid hour down there. I'm not going to make it a new year's resolution because I know it's not something I can stick with for an entire year, nor measure very well. But let's say for this month I want to workout most nights of the week (aka mon-thurs, maybe on the weekends too).

Hubby and I set up our challenge last night. Here's the details, not sure how well it's gonna work, he already had a defeatist attitude. Not that I want to throw the competition, but I want him to win the first week to see that he has a chance. We're getting 10 pts for every lb lost (only on friday morning official WIs), so 1 pt per 0.1 lb. And 1 pt for every half hour of exercise. His hockey counts, shovelling sidewalk counts, my classes and tapes and treadmill time count. walking the dog will count for him (not sure if I'll count it for myself, doesn't feel like anything for me).

So yesterday I got 2 pts from my class. Hopefully I can get 9 pts per week from exercise minimum. (2.5 hours from classes = 5 pts, then another 2 hours on my own?) However hubby plays hockey for minimum 1.5 hours/week = 3 pts. This week he's got a game wed, thurs, fri and sat. (in a tournament) so he'll have at least 12 pts, maybe more depending how many games in the tournament. I have a feeling he'll lose weight faster than I will, maybe not at the beginning, but after I'm down this extra Christmas stuff and back in the struggle area.

The prizes are: winner each week gets 30 minutes of slavery from the loser. That never sounded kinky last night when we set it up but it does now! we were thinking like I would have to clean up the pop that exploded in his bar fridge in the garage (stuff he doesn't want to do) and I was thinking I'd get him to put up the hooks for the curtain I bought and haul all the Christmas stuff downstairs. The monthly winner gets choice of date, paid for by the other person. So I'll choose a night out dinner and movies, just the 2 of us. He'll choose going to the bar with his whole hockey team. The ultimate winner gets $100 from the joint account. The ultimate winner is the person who gets to their goal weight first, to be fair we set it at approximately 12 lbs lost. for him down to 175.0, me to 134.0 (we had our first official weigh in already last friday, I was 145.8, super ew.)

I think it will be fun. I tried to make it so neither one of us had an advantage. Well maybe I have an advantage in that I like to exercise and will do it more than him, but it's hard to get a lot of points from that, where as he can probably lose weight faster which is worth more points. Should balance out right?

anyway, that's all I've got for now. Eating is starting to get tightened up, but I've got some ways to go. I've eaten a full pack of lifesavers both today and yesterday. that's not great. Plus had 2 angel food cupcakes yesterday. Try and do better today, get that junk out of the house. Cooking a nice big healthy supper. lots of veggies. (hitting up the grocery store today as well.)