Archive | June, 2014

Filming and Medals and All Around Fun

25 Jun

I soooooo wanted to write about this yesterday but my internet crapped out, bad timing that!

Yesterday I was, get ready for this!…filming an episode of a tv show! *squeal of excitement* Awesome huh?! 😀

I can’t give a lot of specifics due to signing a loooong confidentiality agreement but here is what I can say:

– I was a principle character in the episode (that means a main character)

– the show is docudrama/soap opera genre

– the show is international

– my character was a nurse so I was in scrubs which (1) are super comfy and (2) made me look humongous *rolls eyes*

– each episode has completely different cast so there is no potential for reprising the role

– I was up at 5am so I could be on set for 7am

– the make-up and hair ladies loved my hair and cheekbones lol

– crafty (that is the catered food) provided pretty decent food

– we filmed at an abandoned psych hospital and the crew had some super creepy stories about the place

– I wrapped (that means finished) a bit after 6pm so I was able to get to my dragon boat practice on time, which was a pleasant surprise

Oh, and fair warning, once the episode is aired if I can find a link to an episode online I will be posting it on my blog so you can all have the option of watching it or not lol 😛

Here are some pics of parts of the psych hospital, outside only…

One of the buildings

One of the buildings

2014-06-24 06.27.15

 

I didn't get to go in this building, it looked more ominous than the others.

I didn’t get to go in this building, up close it looked more ominous than the others.

Spooky stairs all over the place leading to who knows where...

Spooky stairs all over the place leading to who knows where…

Than, as if filming wasn’t enough to make the day amazing when I got to dragon boat practice I got given my medal from the weekend! I thought I would get a medal since I raced Saturday but was worried that since I missed the Sunday due to being sick I miiiiight not get a medal, ya know, cause of not being there for the final race. But I was worried for nuthin, phew! lol It is so purdy!

My medal!

My medal!

I was coughing all day, doing my best to cough between takes of course lol I was doing really well until the last scene where I started losing control of the cough, the hot tea I’d be sipping all day to soothe my throat was no longer helping and I thought I’d have to ask for some cough drops (which I had brought, along with cough syrup and throat lozenges lol) but I managed to tough it out. On the way to practice I was sucking on cherry halls, the type with the cough syrup in the middle, to try to get the cough to stop. I was sorta ok during practice, I coughed all the way through it but was still able to paddle. I did notice that I had less stamina than normal, not sure if that was cause of the long day or the trouble breathing cause of the cough and congestion…I’m leaning to it being more because of the cough since the filming left me all energetic and psyched lol. However, by the time I got home from practice my voice was shot, totally 100% shot! I was a croaking frog, not pretty! *wrinkled nose* I spent today not talking lol I just stayed in and chilled in the hopes that would help my voice recover faster, I don’t think it will help much though cause I am coughing even more than before and the cough is what is causing the most damage to my throat – in my non medical opinion lol 😛 Hopefully it goes away soon, if not for me than for the cat, every time he tries to cuddle with me I cough and it disturbs him, he’s been glaring at me a lot lol

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My Rio Tinto Alcan Weekend

23 Jun

This past weekend was the biiiiiig dragon boat festival! We spend all season gearing up for this festival, training! training! training! Rio Tinto is the largest dragon boat festival in North America, teams comes from all over the world to compete, it is a big thing in the dragon boat world.

I absolutely love this festival! Not only are there 160 dragon boat teams competing against each other for coveted medals there are food vendors, booths set up with free samples, coupons, random information about all sorts of topics, live performances, this festival has it all! It is one of things I look forward to all year.

All us dragon boaters will be the first to admit that unless you know someone in a race watching dragon boat racing can be a bit, um, boring…I know! It sounds horrible to say but it’s true. Each race heat can take what seems like forever to get set up because you can’t tell from the shore how much the tide has moved the boats as they try to line up or any of the other random things that can happen that make the start of the race be delayed. That’s why having all the on shore entertainment helps, it keeps people entertained when they stop being quite so entertained by the races lol

The weather on Saturday was perfect! Sunny, warm but not boiling hot, abso beautiful! 🙂 I’ve competed at this festival when the weather is cold and pouring rain so the warmth and sun was much appreciated lol. I of course was coating my exposed skin in 110spf sunscreen and wearing long sleeves and pants, oh and a hat! lol I look like I hate the sun, and I kinda do because of how easily I burn, but I also don’t, I just hate the UV rays that try to not-so-slowly turn me in to a lobster, shrug.

Our race times on Saturday were strong, 2:06 then 2:05. They put us in a nice solid position for day two of racing which (obviously) is important.

Sadly I can’t tell you much about Sunday, sigh. By the time I went to bed Saturday I had a fever, no voice and an upset stomach. I kept telling myself “you are not sick, you’re just tired” but no matter how many times I said that to myself I really was sick, not just tired, sigh. I woke up in the morning after a night of crappy sleep to the realization I was too sick to paddle, heck, I was too sick to get out of bed. 😦 I debated still going, pushing myself, I was hoping maybe I would feel better once I was up and moving and there but I know better than that, if I can’t manage to get to the sink to get a glass of water no way I can keep up in a race piece and no way in hell am I going to risk my team winning a race because I insist on being on the boat. Damn self-sacrificing instincts, sigh.

I got text updates from teammates during the day and I was glad to hear how much fun they were having even though I was curled up miserable on my living room chair. Then the best news of all came, they won Silver in B Division! I’m so proud of them! I don’t know what the actual finish time was but I know it had to have been awesome lol 🙂

One of my teammates posted this to our facebook wall:

“Of the SIXTEEN teams that raced above us in both A Rec Consolation, and A Rec Championship, there were only THREE times faster than ours — 1 in Consolation, and 2 in Championship. Our time bested 13 of the 16 teams in A Division”

How amazing is it that our time was only beat by three other teams! *shock face*

I didn’t take any pictures of the festival on the Saturday because I was planning on taking them all on the Sunday, a decision I now greatly regret, sigh. So here are some pictures I stole from facebook and the media images that were used in papers and websites…that’s right! We made it in to media footage!

one of my teammates medals resting on his jersey

one of my teammates medal resting on his jersey

that's our caller and the first two rows of the boat (left side) in the final race

that’s our caller and the first two rows of the boat (left side) in the final race

Normally I sit second bench left side but since I wasn’t there on the Sunday I am not in this picture, my good friend KR is though and she looks awesome! 🙂

we are the team with the white sleeves

we are the team with the white sleeves

So there we have it, it was an awesome weekend, the parts of it I got to experience and the parts of it I missed. I’m really bummed I wasn’t there with my team to win the medal but I’m so so so happy for them and proud of how great they did! 🙂

Only 362 days until the start of next years Rio Tinto dragon boat festival…not that I’m counting or anything… 😉

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This Thing I Wrote Monday

17 Jun

It was a friend’s birthday yesterday, actually it was multiple friend’s birthdays but the one I am talking about is a friend from work. She didn’t work yesterday so I bombarded her with a happy bday text and figured we’d do something another day to celebrate. Well, one of our mutual work friends asked me today if I could find a picture of a crazy chef or something and “put something together” that would make the bday girl laugh. Well duh, of course I can lol

This is what I did:

I had a pie chart at the top that for some reason won’t copy&paste on to here so I took a picture of it from the computer screen with my phone, my apologies for the bad quality…

2014-06-17 00.54.56

The pie sections are crazy, almost crazy, fairly sane and sane. Crazy is the blue piece.

(then it read)

Recent studies have shown that an overwhelmingly high percentage of chefs go crazy after working in a kitchen for too long. Some scientist claim it is the increased exposure to butter that does it, others feel that being around so many instruments that could be used to torture and kill others leads Chefs to feel all life is expendable, much like the animals they cook.
While there is no conclusive evidence to support the above theories there are currently multiple studies being done to ascertain why exactly Chefs of the highest caliber are going loony tunes.
Until the cause can be nailed down and a cure found please watch out for Chefs that look like any of the below pictures:

2014-06-17 00.58.13

Screenshot from the actual document – hence the text.

It is recommended to keep your distance if your Chef starts pointing knives at you or glaring excessively. If your Chef looks like any of the above pictures back away slowly, do not turn your back on them and above all else, give them more vacation time!
Happy Birthday T!

I know it doesn’t seem all that impressive on here but that is because it is all broken up with horrible quality pictures, there is no real flow to it but on the actual page we gave to the bday girl there was flow and it made people laugh. The bday girl seemed to really like it, said it was better than any card we could have bought. 🙂 We all signed the page so it is like a card, but more personal.

What made it even better was that the blonde haired model in those chef pictures looks sooooo similar to the bday girl that all of us did double and triple takes of the images to ensure it wasn’t actually our friend. What’re the odds of that? It’s like it was destined to be! 🙂

p.s. I guess I should have made note of the fact that the bday girl is a Chef, hence the jokes and pictures…

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My Foodie Weekend

16 Jun

Mmm! Such amazing food at work this weekend. Made it hard to follow the new rules I was attempting to implement to fix the damage I learned about from my weigh-in on Friday but I don’t think I did too badly…course I could be deluding myself! Who knows? lol

Friday and Saturday were normal, I took food Saturday so that day was healthy, I forgot my food on the Friday so I ate at work but I was careful. Dinner was a fish dish with veggies and potatoes. I had about 3 bites of the fish (I didn’t really like it), I did however eat all the veggies (I love veggies, Mmm!) and I ignored the potatoes (unnecessary carbs). Oh and for dessert I had an apple instead of a cookie, I was kinda proud of that swap out, I love those cookies, swapping out for an apple was harsh lol 😛

Sunday, oh Sunday! It was Father’s Day so we had a bbq at work for lunch. We had to move everything indoors due to rain, lame! And one of the poor cooks got drenched cause he was the one who had to brave the elements to dash to the bbq, cook the steak, then dash back in to the building, all while keeping the steaks dry cause obviously the food is more important than a mere person 😉

one just makes the chef stay outside while everyone else is inside

one just makes the chef stay outside while everyone else is inside

Lunch was steak, prime rib if I remember correctly, corn on the cob and baked potatoes that were double baked with cheese an stuff on top. That would be the second time I have had steak and I’m still not sure what I think about it. Because I am staff and not a resident I didn’t get a prime piece of steak I got a less than prime piece I guess you could say, shrug. It was kind of fatty and I didn’t like that. The last steak I had wasn’t like that so I’m not sure which way is normal, the fat or the not fat…anybody? It was red inside when I cut in to it, I checked with one of the other staff to make sure that was ok, I’m used to chicken where that would be all kinds of bad, she said it was all good and for her would be perfect so I decided to ignore the red colour of the meat and give it a go. It was tender, tasty, there was a green drizzled sauce on top, not drenching it or anything, it was artistically placed on top and that was where the flavour seemed to be coming from. Otherwise all it would have tasted like was meat and what’s with that? That’s not good, ugh. See? This is why I never order steak (that and the cost lol), I prefer to not have meat be the overwhelming flavour, shrug. I don’t remember what dessert was but that is because I skipped it, I figured I’d just eaten steak, and half a baked potato and corn on the cob, that should be enough to keep the tummy happy for a while lol

Today (Monday) was our company’s two year anniversary so we celebrated! 🙂 There was a fancy lunch and oh man, waaaay better than the steak lunch! There was a butternut squash soup, easily one of my favourite kinds of soup, cedar wood planked salmon and cheesecake with a raspberry sauce. The fish, oh the fish! My taste buds were so happy! I’ve never had salmon cooked like that, who knew that putting salmon on to a piece of wood and cooking it that way would make it so much better? The flavour had a depth to it that I had never experienced and will miss the next time I eat salmon. The sides were halved baby tomatoes and spinach cooked in a pan with some sort of sauce drizzled in there…they really like to artistically drizzle sauce at my work lol and some baby potatoes, also halved, cooked in some way I have no knowledge of and seasoned with, um, something? lol There were herbs of some sort on the potatoes but I am not sure what they were. Since I never plan on attempting to recreate the dish I didn’t feel the need to find out what they did with the potatoes, shrug. As for the cheesecake, it has been a ridiculously long time since I have had cheesecake and as I savoured every bite I was reminded of the knowledge that a person could definitely survive on cheesecake exclusively and be super happy about it. Yum! Yum! Yummmm!

cheesecake!cheesecake!cheesecake!

cheesecake!cheesecake!cheesecake!

So there we have it, my foodie weekend. 🙂 I wish I’d taken pictures of the various dishes so I could show you but I didn’t, I know I know, I suck 😛 Next time, promise! 🙂

Oh! I forgot the champagne! We had champagne today and hey, you can never go wrong with being allowed to drink alcohol while at work -especially when it’s the big boss who hands you a glass of it lol

champagne-toast

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30-ish

13 Jun

Alrighty so today was THE day, the day I was stepping on…dun-dun-dunnn…the scale! (insert scream here!)

It was NOT a pleasant experience at all! 😦

Everything started off ok, I got the new battery in, chose a flat non-carpeted spot to place it (as per the sticker on the bottom), stood on it once to get it calibrated (still following what the sticker said). According to the sticker you step on, wait till it flashes a number, ignore the number, step off, wait till the screen goes blank then step back on because only after all that is the scale actually able to properly weigh you.

I gotta say, after all that, the number that showed up on that stupid silly little digital screen made me so upset I couldn’t decide if I should hit something, cry, pout, break the scale, crawl back in to bed and hide or immediately sell my car so I could find a doctor and get liposuction.

Of course I did none of those things,  I hopped in the shower with that horrible horrible number repeating itself in my head and gazed blindly at the wall of the shower wondering what the hell happened. How had I let that happen?? Talk about epic fail.

I had thought I’d gained 10-15 pounds from the last time I weighed myself, which, in case you are wondering was hmm, two years or so ago? I stopped weighing myself when I started building more muscle and the scale number stopped giving me proper feedback on my progress. Um yeah, no, according to the scale I have gone up 30 pounds. THIRTY POUNDS!!!

fat cat 2

I just don’t get it, I mean yeah I have gone up a pant size, but usually a pant size is 10 pounds, and my top half hasn’t changed size in years, where are these thirty pounds? Where?!?!

Why didn’t any of my friends give me a heads up I was headed back in to porker land? Aren’t friends supposed to tell you things like this? 😦

pig

I’m so mad about that number!

A friend of mine, who is also a co-worker, was at work today and I spoke to her, I was in such a funk and I needed to vent to someone. Turns out she doesn’t even own a scale so as soon as I said I stepped on one she was asking me why I would do that lol Only the supremely fit wonder why the rest of us rely so much on the scale *rolls eyes* She is a personal trainer and couldn’t believe the number the scale gave me. She also said that:

(1) the scale can’t tell the difference between fat and muscle and since we’ve known each other (about a year) I’ve put on muscle

(2) unless it is one of the scales that tells you your body fat percentage, muscle and water retention the number doesn’t mean anything

(3) if I’m wearing the same, or close to the same clothing size as before then the change in number can’t all be fat gain

(4) never pay attention to a scale

During our convo another co-worker walked in and heard what we were talking about, she said she gained 40 pounds in a year so my weight gain is a totally possible thing to which my friend asked about her clothing sizes and she admitted she went up 4 clothing sizes in that one year…so she most likely gained fat (I’m not being mean, she is the one who said that!) where as I apparently gained some combo of fat and muscle…I just don’t get it, sigh. I mean, I get it in theory, but that doesn’t help me with how I’m feeling right now.

It especially doesn’t help that I have an audition tomorrow and have to be in a swimsuit. 😦

So I don’t know what to do…I was freaking out when still at home and getting ready for work and decided that things need to change asap. I made my healthy breakfast (dropped an egg on the floor while doing it, ugh, messy!), made a healthy dinner to take to work (which I accidentally left on the counter when I left for work so I had to throw it out when I got home, talk about a day for wasting food, sigh), decided I am no longer eating food from work unless it is legit healthy or I stupidly leave my healthy food at home *rolls eyes* and I took workout gear with me so when I was done at 9pm I changed at work and went for a run in the area I work. I find by the time I get home at 9:30pm it is too dark to run but if I run at 9pm it is still decently light outside hence the running where I work.

I was paranoid about how I looked when I left the house but while at work I went to the washroom and thought I looked good in the mirror…am I trying to subconsciously delude myself about how bad the situation has gotten? Are my eyes tricking me? Maybe the mirror is faulty?

When I was finished at work and changed in to my workout gear I could see all my problem spots but I was still confused about the change in number, no way I would have been able to wear the t-shirt I was wearing the last time I weighed this amount, it is too slim fitting, and I only bought these work out pants when I was a lower weight then I am now (about 15 pounds lighter than I am now) but they still fit and more importantly they still look good.

So what gives?

I’ve decided to let that number spur me in to motion, be my reason for moving more, eating better, being fitter. I hate that number and even though I have no idea how much of it is fat and how much of it is muscle, I don’t care, I still hate it and I want it to get smaller. I will make it smaller!

More workouts at the gym, more evening runs after work, more proper meals, more focus, more dedication, more pushing myself.

More!

never quit again

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The Battery Debacle

12 Jun

Alrighty so this past weekend I was supposed to buy a new battery for my stupid scale and then on Tuesday I was going to, *gulp* weigh myself for the first time in years…Years! I was not looking forward to this…

There was a slight delay, than a glitch, and well, it didn’t happen, oops?

I forgot to get the old battery out of the scale Sunday night so I could take it with me to work Monday and buy the battery Monday after work. Perhaps my subconscious at work? 😉 I figured oh well, so I’ll buy the battery Tuesday and weigh myself Wednesday, a delay of one day won’t kill me.

One day, ha! 😛

Tuesday I was out and about, helping a friend with some stuff, we did a quick stop at Superstore and I meandered over to the battery section only to find I wasn’t exactly sure which battery I needed. sigh. I still hadn’t taken the battery out of the scale but I remembered what it looked like from the last time I changed the battery and figured how hard could it be to find that same battery? Turns out I had a 50/5o chance of getting it right and I got it wrong. *rolls eyes* The battery is a round flat disc, but there were two batteries like that…who knew?

Look how similar they are!!

Look how similar they are!!

Wednesday I completely forgot about it, was busy hiking and in general just enjoying my day but I remembered Wednesday night and was determined to weigh myself Thursday morning. I put the new battery on my night side table where I couldn’t miss seeing it when I got up and went to sleep with the sure knowledge I would swap the battery out in the morning and somehow find the courage to step on the scale.

Um, well, nope, it took about 15 minutes or so just to get the cover open so I could get the old battery out and that is when I discovered I bought the wrong replacement battery. They look sooooo similar! I almost opened the package to give the one I bought a try anyways but decided against it, I figured better to go buy the proper one and return this one so I can get my money back. Hey, I’m cheap, don’t judge! 😉 lol

No way was I not going to eat before going out to do my errands and when I weigh myself I follow some simple but unalterable rules:

(1) use the toilet first

(2) ingest nothing beforehand

(3) be naked

(4) hop on the scale before hopping into the shower

(5) put my contacts in, they weigh less than my glasses

Which meant no weigh-in for me today, gee, I’m so upset about that…said no one ever! lol

I managed to finally buy the correct battery today, only took me three freakin days! So tomorrow, barring any kind of weird unforeseeable freak occurrence that will prevent me from getting on the scale (please-oh-please let something happen! *crosses fingers* 😉 ) I will be putting that brand new battery in to my evil evil scale and stepping back in to the world of weekly weigh-ins. I have no words to describe how I feel about this but this picture may help give you an idea…

fearI actually prefer weighing in on Tuesdays, or even Wednesdays, but if I don’t get my feet on that scale sooner rather than later I may never do it so Friday morning it is! I may switch to a Tuesday or Wednesday weigh-in next week though, we’ll see just how horrible Fridays weigh-in is and see if I can convince myself to get back on to the scale before the next Friday rolls around lol

 

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A Gold Surprise!

12 Jun

Last weekend my team and I competed in a dragon boat race festival, to read about it click here. It is a smaller festival so even though we won gold in our division we didn’t get anything for it, well, except bragging rights lol

Our coach this evening after practice had us all gather around and surprised us with…

Front Side

Front

Back

Back

Gold Medals!

Turns out this year the festival organizers decided to award medals to the winners but medals were awarded Sunday and my team competed Saturday so none of us were there for the medal ceremony. Lucky for us coach was there so she collected the medals on our behalf. None of us had any idea we were getting them so we were all super surprised and of course delighted when we got them tonight. It was like winning twice lol 🙂

I have a video of the final race that one of my teammates uploaded to facebook and am trying to get to embed on here but not sure if it will work…

…aaaaand nope, it didn’t work. sigh. I’ll try again another night.

It was an odd practice tonight, we were all tired for some reason and paddling just seemed harder, ugh, I hate nights like that. 😛 We have a makeup practice this coming Sunday because this past Tuesdays practice was cancelled. I won’t be able to make it to the Sunday practice because I will be at work, boo! There is only one more week until the biggest festival of our season, I can’t believe how fast this season has gone!

 

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A Dog’s Day

11 Jun

Today was so great! 🙂

I got to sleep until my body decided to wake itself up, I am a firm believer that everyone should do that because the body knows when it is rested enough, but sadly the way society works doesn’t really gel with that philosophy so instead I try to give myself one day a week where I do that. Today was that day. 🙂

Then I got to take my landlord’s dog for a hike. I would have gone hiking anyways but the company of Steff (the dog) was much enjoyed. We had to stick to an easier trail because Steff is 10 years old and has arthritis…course, I have arthritis and that doesn’t stop me from doing the harder trails but I’m kinda dumb that way lol 😉

Steff, she will confirm I am a dummy at times lol

Steff, she will confirm I am a dummy at times lol

We also ended up going a bit slower than either of us wanted because at one section of the trail we met some random lady who had two adorable dogs and the first words out of her mouth to me were “oh so you’ve heard about the bear?” to which I replied “huh?” Pretty intelligent response dontcha think? 😉

Turns out a lady had just passed her and warned her she saw a bear on the trail so all the people on the trail with dogs were warning other people with dogs so that leashes could be re-attached to collars. Apparently dog people have some sort of gossip club lol She assumed since Steff was on leash I had heard about the bear and was taking precautions. In actuality it was that I was worried if Steff saw something that got her really excited she might run off and not come back when I called cause I’m not her person. I told her this and somehow a conversation evolved and boom! hiking buddy. shrug. The dogs got along well and I couldn’t think of a polite way to leave her in the dust, unfortunately she was a slower hiker than Steff and I so we ended up slowing down to the woman’s pace. Steff wasn’t impressed with this, she kept going as far forward as she could then looking back at me as if to say “really? Really!!”

So we hiked to the end of that specific trail, it ends at this big open space that has multiple trail options so you can either keep going on a different trail or go back on the one you just finished. Before heading back we took the dogs to this water spot where the current isn’t as fast as in other areas so the dogs could jump in and enjoy themselves. I gotta tell ya, I was really wishing I was in shorts and could wade in there with them, the water was so clear and inviting looking. Instead I stayed on the rocks and Steff seeing I was being a silly human and staying dry oh-so-kindly came up to me and shook as hard as she could so I got sprayed with water – isn’t she just the most thoughtful dog ever? 😉

Cuteness

Cuteness

We went back on the same trail we used to get to the water because it is the easiest trail and I was worried about pushing her too hard and making her arthritis flare up. What can I say, she’s not my dog, I was worried! I can’t very well take her back to my landlord and say “here is your dog, sorry she’s limping and drenched from the river!” I’d be homeless in an instant lol

Part way back Steff all of a sudden stopped, stared right into the bushes next to us and started to bark. Creeeeepy! My response was to immediately shorten her leash so she had to stay near me and put myself between her and the bushes, cause apparently I am ok with a bear attacking me before her…she’s not even my dog! *rolls eyes* She did a really good job of staying close, not even trying to get ahead of me for quite a while, then when she decided the danger had passed she started trying to pull ahead, I figured I’d trust her instincts over mine so I lengthened the leash again.

After one last dip in the river we separated from the lady with the two dogs and jogged a good chunk of the rest of the trail. It felt really nice to be moving faster, which when I pause to think about that seems strange cause I’m lazy but oh well lol

She kept trying to eat the water, must be a dog thing!

She kept trying to eat the water, must be a dog thing!

In total we did 10.81km and it took us 2:14:22 which sounds ridiculously slow but that is because I didn’t pause the app when we stopped so Steff could go swimming and in total we stopped about 6 times. So combine going slower cause of that lady and stopping completely so Steff could swim and it totally messes with my average time to complete a hike but oh well, I had fun and I figure that should count for something, right?

After we got home Steff immediately curled up in her bed and had a nap, I went and moved furniture *rolls eyes*. A friend of mine moved recently and she had this shelving unit, the type with the cube spaces instead of traditional shelves, her new place is too small for it so I bought it off her for $40 and am replacing my dead dresser with it. I had it in the back of my suv and had to haul it in to my place, originally I thought I’d ask my landlord for help but he wasn’t home and I didn’t want to wait so I did it on my own. Lemme tell ya, this thing is not light! It is two cubes wide and four cubes tall and the wood is thick, talk about working the already tired muscles! It is currently sitting in my kitchen cause I still need to buy the cloth cubes to put my clothes in. The cat is loving it! He may be upset when it gets moved to the bedroom cause he seems to be under the impression I brought it home and put it in the kitchen as a new toy for him…so far he’s jumped on the top, hung out within the cube spaces and when running around hyper treated it like an obstacle to dive through. It’s hilarious!

He couldn't decide if she should go to the top or stay where he was lol

He couldn’t decide if he should go to the top or stay where he was lol

2014-06-11 16.45.20

2014-06-11 16.45.31

Since those pictures were taken he has lounged on the top, chased his tail within one of the cube spaces and in general claimed the unit as his. At this rate I’ll never get it back! lol 😛

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Race Day: DZ 500m

7 Jun

This weekend is the DZ 500m Dragon Boat Race Festival! 🙂

My team. :) We didn't all realize there was a camera looking at us lol

My team. 🙂 We didn’t all realize there was a camera looking at us lol

It is a two day event but each team races for only one day, there are three races per team per day. In the grand scheme of things it is a fairly small festival, mostly used as a qualifier for the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival (the largest North American dragon boat festival). It’s a good festival to gauge where your team is in comparison to other teams, and a great chance to see how your team does in a 500m race since you most likely haven’t competed in a 500m race since last season.

Racing during practice, either against a stop watch or other teams that are on the water practicing is a completely different thing than racing in festival, obviously lol.

We had an early start, we met at 8am and our first race was scheduled for around 9:30am…I think…I know it was around there but these things almost never run on schedule lol When we were getting ready for warm-up we were told they (the race officials) were running behind then in an almost magical turn around they were running early *rolls eyes* Ah well, keeps things interesting! 😛

We had excellent race times for all three races! 🙂 Yay!

First Race: 2:15

Second Race: 2:14

Third Race: 2:11

wOOt! wOOt!

Even though we are racing against other teams we are also racing against ourselves, we always want to do better than our previous race and we are oh-so-happy that we got faster with each race!

Plus! Not only did our times get better with each race we came in first place in our division! FIRST PLACE! *happy dance*

This is an excellent way to be heading in to our next race festival and talk about a boost to team morale, what a truly awesome way to start the race season!

Oh and on a vain note, we have new jerseys this year and we all looked amazing! 🙂 Last year we kept having jersey issues and we ended up going the whole season without a jersey, it was really nice to actually look like a competitive team this year lol One of my teammates designed the jersey and wow did he make them look sweeeeet! I didn’t take any pictures during the day, our races were back-to-back so there was no time during the day and afterwards when we were hanging out it didn’t really cross my mind but next festival there will be more time between races and we’ll probably take a team photo so I’ll post one then so you can see the jerseys, we all love em! 🙂

I’ve been pretty good about eating healthy today, well, except for a cookie I had earlier after our third race as celebration for doing so well lol Yeah yeah, I know! I shouldn’t celebrate with food but those cookies were staring at me all day and I’d just done three races, gimme a break lol 😛 Other than that cookie I did ok, oatmeal, banana, babybell cheese, salad, turkey bacon, egg, toast with peanut butter, tea, water…I think that’s all of it…that’s not sooooo bad, right? *nods head* Right!

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Admitting The Truth

6 Jun

I didn’t think I was that person who lost weight, then gained it back. After all, I’m nowhere near the size I was at the beginning of my weight loss journey buuuut…I’m also not the smallest I have been on this journey.

I haven’t wanted to admit this to myself, let alone to anyone else, but it is time I faced the truth…I rebounded a bit. Does this mean I am now a yo-yo dieter? I dunno. Does it mean I am doomed to gain back all the weight I lost? I dunno. Does this mean I am destined to gain and lose and gain and lose for the rest of my life? I don’t know that either…sigh.

Seems there is a lot I don’t know.

I know that I have to get back on track, but I feel lost and not sure how to do that. I keep thinking I am not going to go back to Weight Watchers because I plateaued so badly on that program. Don’t get me wrong, I am super grateful for Weight Watchers, I lost 35 pounds with them, I learned about proper portion sizes with them, I learned I can happily swap out junk food for fresh fruit and enjoy healthy eating but I also feel there are limitations to that program and that I outgrew it. I don’t feel like going back to Weight Watchers is the right choice for me but that doesn’t mean that I know what the right choice for me is.

I also know I am not good at extreme programs. I can only maintain eating paleo, or the bodybeach program, or super restrictive low calorie eating plans for so long before I cave. Even if I like the food and am getting good portion sizes it is more about all the foods I am not allowed to eat. Knowing that on an extreme program having even one spoonful of peanut butter could be considered cheating messes with me. I need a bit of wiggle room, space so I don’t get all down on myself when I step outside of the food rules that I am following.

I need something realistic, and affordable!

My scale has been tucked away for over a year and I am scared to pull it back out, I am scared to see what the number will be when I step on it. I’d rather be back in boxing class getting hit during sparring than stand on that scale again. How pathetic is that?? I originally put it away because I was building muscle and the scale number was no longer an accurate way to measure my progress. It was sloooowly going up as I was getting more trim and it was messing with my head. For so long I relied solely on the number it gave me every week to know if I was doing well and to see it go up, even though I knew it was because of muscle gain, made me feel like a failure. I started gauging my success/failure by other means, how my clothes fit, what size I could now buy, every now and then I would check my size with a measuring tape. For a while these methods of tracking worked but then they didn’t work so well anymore and I was left with no solid way to hold myself accountable.

I’m thinking that is around the time I started to slowly go up in size. For a while it was easy to ignore, my clothes still fit, just maybe a bit tighter, I could still reach the same levels at the gym, even though I wasn’t at the gym as often, I was eating roughly the same amount calorie wise but the calories were coming from more processed foods than fresh healthy foods.  The pounds snuck up on me and now I have to face reality that I have gone up an entire size, so that’s what, ten pounds? That’s depressing. All that work I did to lose weight and I have gone and gained some of it back. What was I thinking?! 

What’s twisted is that even with the weight gain I am more active then before, just in different ways. Instead of going to the gym daily I will swap out gym visits for a hike, or a run or my dragon boat practice. I am still active just not in a regimented gym equipment kind of way, and I guess the activities I am doing now aren’t as good for weight loss or weight maintenance as following a gym program is. Kinda sucks cause I enjoy the hikes an such but if I have to choose between enjoying the activity and getting results from the activity I will choose results every time…well, except for dragon boating, I will always choose dragon boating lol.

I don’t want to be writing this, I don’t want to be that person that gained weight back. But ya know, I follow a lot of other blogs that deal with weight loss, healthy lifestyles etc and I’ve noticed over the years I don’t seem to be the only one this happens to. It seems a lot of people, before they reach their goal weight have a slip up and gain some of the weight back. Most take a while to admit it to themselves and the longer you take to admit it the more weight you have gained back. I know with me part of it was the way I was thinking about food, I started getting cocky, thinking I didn’t have to be as strict cause I’d lost so much, I could let down my guard a bit. Well, proved that idea wrong! I let down my guard and look what happened! 😛

Even though I’m feeling down because I am facing the truth about my weight gain I am glad I am facing this truth now rather than a couple more months down the road when I will have possibly gained back even more weight.

I don’t have a solution for this, I wish I was concluding this post with some great awesome plan that would get me back on track but I don’t have one…yet! For now I am going to aim to get a new battery for my scale (mine died) and I plan to stand on that scale Tuesday morning. I also have a 4 week eating plan that I am going to research a bit more, see if it is doable on my budget, and I am going to schedule exercise into my days instead of leaving it as an up-in-the-air thing that happens more sporadically then it should. Hopefully I can get myself back on track within 5 days or so and huh, look at that, I may not have a solution yet but it seems like I actually do have a bit of a plan, at least a plan in the making…I’ll cross my fingers it works!…Uh, anybody wanna step on that scale for me? 😉 lol

Must remember this

Must remember this

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