Tag Archives: dragon boating

New PFD

3 Apr

You know that excited feeling you have when you get something new that you’ve wanted for a long time? That happy-dance-big-smile-want-to-tell-everyone feeling?

That was me today! 😀

I finally got my very own PFD!

Thanks to my awesome awesome brother who gave me a SportChek/Atmoshphere gift card for Christmas I am now the proud owner of a PFD.

I waited this long to buy it because I had to wait for the store to stock them again, stupid winter sports taking over the store lol I was that annoying person who called every week, sometimes more than once a week, asking if they got the new stock of PFDs in yet. I almost got to stalker level…if a person could stalk a PFD that is… 😛

Want to see it? Well of course you do! lol

It's miiiiiiine!

It’s miiiiiiine!

It is Salus brand, made in Canada and all black – as you can see. 🙂 I specifically wanted an all black PFD because (1) I hate all the colours most PFDs are and (2) this way it doesn’t matter what colour my team jersey is I won’t clash. Hey now, don’t judge cause I think of these things lol Oh, and (3) I always prefer black. 🙂

I wore it for practice tonight and it got fully drenched by the pouring rain, I’d say that means it is officially broken in lol It was comfy, it didn’t get in the way of my stroke technique and I’m sure if I’d fallen out of the boat it would have kept me afloat so yay for it passing it’s first test! 🙂

Oh, and a little happy sidenote, I exercised twice today, twice! I went for an hour and a half walk with a friend early afternoon. I forgot to turn on my Runtastic App so I’m not sure how far we walked but we kept a steady decently fast pace, no meandering! I’d guess around 5km, maybe more, which is ok. Then of course the dragon boat practice which was two hours of technique work and cardio.

All in all, it was a good day. 🙂

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So Far So Good

2 Apr

Last month I tried this thing, I wrote on a calendar I have hanging on my bedroom wall every time I exercised and I highlighted it in pink. This way, I could see at a quick glance how much or how little I was exercising. I wasn’t going to push to exercise more than normal, I just wanted to see where, in my normal routine I drop the ball.

2014-03-31 19.02.14

Uh, wow, I dropped the ball a lot! If you count the pink on that calendar page I only exercised 10 times. 10 times out of 31 days, uhhh…what?? Talk about being a lazy butt and having proof of it! 😦

I am guaranteed two times a week because of dragon boat practice but I’ve got to stop slacking the other days! The easiest day to exercise, besides my dragon boat days, is Wednesday because it is a day off. Fridays through Mondays are where I suck. Those are my work days. If I don’t get my exercise in before I go to work Fridays and Saturdays I won’t get it done because of how late I get home. Sundays and Mondays I am usually so tired after working the morning shift I do nothing but crash.

But, like I said, things have to change.

So, I changed them. 🙂

This past Monday we had beautiful weather, sunny, warm but not hot, the cherry blossom trees are in bloom, a perfect spring day. I left work late but was determined when I got home I’d go out and at least walk, enjoy some of that sunshine. I ran in to my landlords when I was leaving the house and asked if their dog might want to come with me, they said yes so I had a super friendly golden lab with me. I didn’t care where we went so we followed her nose. Lemme tell ya, her nose took us on a weird, convoluted route.

the route the dog chose

the route the dog chose

I had planned on only walking, normally I get down on myself if I walk more than run but I was tired and my goal was to get some sort of exercise even if it wasn’t as intense as I would like. The dog however had other plans, lol. She wanted to run and who am I to say no to big cute doggy eyes? I am not that strong! 😉 So, it was a jog/walk. The green parts on the map are where we walked, the yellow was a jog, the tiny little orange section was more of a run, you can see that didn’t last long lol In total we went 5.45 km in 1:02:33.

Then Tuesday I had dragon boat practice so two hours of exercise there, yay! I usually (read that as Always!) sit left side of the boat but we were short people who sit on the right at practice so I ended up sitting on the right side. It was…odd…My body is used to sitting left so it was a tad more painful than normal but not bad painful, just, the other side of my body was getting worked more than it is used to, so muscle pain. Actually, I’m still feeling it today. *groan* poor muscles! lol

Today I went for my first hike of the season. I am soooo glad it is hiking season again, I didn’t realize just how much I missed it till I was out there, on a trail, in the wilderness, away from everything. Well, almost everything, I was with a friend lol We went slower than I would have if I went alone but the point is that we went…right? I used my Runtastic App to track the hike, like I did above with the dog walk, but my phone battery was low and it died while we were still on the trail so I don’t have full data on the hike. I plan on redoing that hike so I can get accurate distance and time it took. The app recorded a distance of 8.12 km in 1:36:06 which sounds horrible buuuuut please take in to account we were on the side of a mountain, on trails, going slower than my normal pace. Take a look at the picture below, you’ll see where it stopped tracking (where the red dot is)

the hike up the mountain and back

the hike up the mountain and back

The numbers on the trail are the app marking the km’s so we went up 5km then turned around and started back down, using my oh-so-non-impressive math skills I’m thinking that means we did 10km. Pretty snazzy math that! 😉 The red dot just past the number 8 is where the phone died but obviously I am not still on the mountain and I made it down and if I went up 5km then I had to come down 5km so yay for 10km! Unfortunately I didn’t notice what time the phone died at, and I didn’t take note of what time we started the hike or what time it was when we got in to the suv at the end of the hike so there goes any hope of my figuring out the math for how long we were hiking. Hence my needing to do the hike again, to get accurate numbers.  I don’t mind doing it again though, it is a really nice easy hike, a good one to start the season with. 🙂 I try to ease in to hiking season cause it can be brutal on my knee, sigh, this will definitely be a go-to-trail when I want easy, meant to relax me hiking, not intense-push-to-the-limit hiking.

So let’s tally things shall we? We are three days in to the week and I have exercised three times, booyah! I know I’ll be exercising tomorrow so that’s in the bag. My big challenge will be Fridays and Saturdays, for some reason doing some form of exercise before work on those days always seems so impossible. I don’t know why I can’t make it happen! I irritate myself with this failing weekly. Maybe this week I’ll manage it, after four days of being active maybe I’ll be so used to getting some sort of exercise it’ll be easier to get out of bed and head to the gym…maybe?

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My Last Three Days

21 Mar

My last three days have been busy, or at least they felt that way but when I look back on them I can’t figure out why they felt so busy…weird… 😛

Well ok, Tuesday wasn’t busy lol I slept in, chilled with the cat then went to dragon boat practice. After practice I made dinner, cooked a new fish dish which turned out well, when I say “well” I mean I didn’t give myself food poisoning lol It tasted fine, nothing great so I won’t be buying it again, shrug. It was healthy though, which was what I was aiming for so yay for getting that right! Although, someone out there will probably read what it was and say I am wrong *rolls eyes* Leave me with my delusions! lol

It was a coconut crusted piece of tilapia, there was seasoning in there too, not like it was just coconut but since it came pre-crusted/seasoned I couldn’t say for sure what those seasonings were…

tilapia coated with seasoning and coconut, yams and grilled peppers

tilapia coated with seasoning and coconut, yams and grilled peppers

I paired it with some red and yellow grilled peppers and some sliced yam, those were cooked in a pan on top of the stove with no butter/spray/oil used, I just put a small bit of water in the pan so the food didn’t stick. I was paranoid about cooking the fish, the instructions said cook for ten minutes per inch and a half of thickness, what?? That’s not cool, I want specific directions for my piece of fish, I want to be told exactly how many minutes for my fish, not have to figure it out myself cause dude, I’ll figure it out wrong! Least, that was the panicked thoughts going through my head lol Turns out it was cooked perfectly, go fig! 🙂

Wednesday I spent the afternoon with my lil sis at the mall. Normally I try to get us doing something active for at least part of our time together but her birthday was this week so I let her decide every thing we did Wednesday which meant we spent the entire time in the mall. Ah well, it’s her day! 🙂 We had fun, which was a given really lol I bought a new phone case for myself which I am in love with right now, every time I pick up my phone I laugh, teehee, and yes I know, I am easily amused. It is a someecards cover and looks like this…

cause I know you care what my phone case looks like lol

cause I know you care what my phone case looks like lol

We had a pit stop at Tim Horton’s cause well, why wouldn’t we?? There is a new maple glazed doughnut out and all I can say to Timmy’s about that is bravo *slow clap* ya done goooooood! My other comment to them is where are all the winning cups?? It’s Roll Up The Rim game time and none of my cups have won so far! *pout*

medium steeped tea and a doughnut, classic!

medium steeped tea and a doughnut, classic!

In the evening I hung out with KL, we got dinner (Indian food, Mmm!), then saw the movie 12 Years A Slave and holy crap was it amazing! Brutal. But amazing. So no exercise for me at all on Wednesday, and lots of food, which is sorta reversed to how it is supposed to be but alas, Wednesday was two days ago so there’s nuthin I can do about it now! lol 😛

Sidenote:

Every time this commercial comes on tv I stop and watch. I love it, well, right up until it gets to the part about advertising for Centrum Science Multi-Vitamins cause I’m not on that whole vitamin bandwagon but I find the commercial inspiring (to a point). All those people, of various ages and backgrounds taking part in a wide variety of physical activities, leading healthy lifestyles, I dunno, something about it makes me want to do more. Try a new sport, or go back to one I used to do and stopped *cough*boxing*cough*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDvJ00qaPvA

Thursday!

I had a relaxing morning, went to an audition early afternoon, then dragon boat practice at night then out for dinner later that night. Thursday was a good day. 🙂

The audition went great, I got amazing feedback from the casting director so wOOt! wOOt! I can’t tell anything about the project or specifics about the auditions cause I signed a non-disclosure agreement but if it turns in to anything rest assured I’ll be linking it to my blog so you can all pretend to watch it lol 😉

At practice we got informed that us girls have to train twice as hard as the guys and that we (this time I mean everyone, not just the girls) are supposed to be eating healthy (duh!) and we aren’t supposed to drink alcohol…um, what? Not like I drink a lot or anything but…none? At all? Hmm…this woman really doesn’t know us lol

Her strictness with things did help curb my appetite today though, which I suppose is good, any little bit helps right? I had dinner at work but only cause it was a fish steak with veggies, there were other things with it (mashed potatoes, spring rolls, apple pie etc) but I didn’t eat those. Didn’t even snag a cookie for dessert!

Oh and lastly! A friend of mine who is a trainer informed me that a respectable time to complete my BMO Run is 45 minutes…I’m going to die…my training is pretty much non-existent, which is not good, I’ve gotta start kicking my own ass in to gear when it comes to running, ugh. Whyyyyyy did I sign up for this? Stupid-wanting-a-new-challenge-feeling *rolls eyes* 😛

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No Gender On The Boat

18 Mar
who'd of thought I'd write one of these??

who’d of thought I’d write one of these??

I don’t usually think about gender inequality. Maybe I should, maybe if women don’t keep an eye out and fight against gender inequality it will slowly sneak back in to our lives and bam! we get blindsided by it and don’t know how to respond. Maybe we, my generation I mean, has gotten lazy because we just assume gender inequality is no longer an issue, well, at least in our first world country existence.

I make jokes about gender inequality, about how some things are “boy jobs” (like killing spiders and taking out the garbage), I never really mean it, obviously anything a guy can do a woman can do and vice versa. It’s not a matter of a person’s gender that decides what they can do, it is what they have been taught, or what they are interested in, or what they have been exposed to. If I was exposed to car repair type things growing up I’d probably have a better idea of how to change the oil in my suv, or change the tire, or I dunno, do suv engine type things. I could still learn how my suv engine works now, I just have no real interest in learning that, shrug. I don’t doubt that I could learn, and I also don’t doubt that there are a lot of women out there who can do car engine type things.

Because I personally feel that anybody can learn to do anything I don’t keep an eye out for gender inequality and I personally haven’t experienced it…until now…

We have a new coach for our dragon boat team, the coach is a woman. I didn’t think anything about it when meeting her because all but one dragon boat coach I have had has been a woman. As long as they are a good coach who cares about anything else, right?

Well, this coach is gender biased, against women. That’s right, she is a woman who is sexist against women. How does that even work??

Our team is a mixed team, meaning we have men and women on the boat. At race festivals there are rules about how many women must be on the boat for a race, it is usually 6 or 8 women minimum. So our new coach is saying we should recruit more men and then on race days have the minimum number of women on the boat we can get away with and fill the rest of the boat with men.

Lemme tell ya, the women on our boat were not impressed with this. She mentioned this at our first practice but I missed that practice because I was sick and thought maybe what I was being told was taken out of context or made to sound worse than it actually is but nope. At every practice since this has come up.

Our women are strong, some of our women are stronger than some of our men. We don’t slack, we don’t let the guys do all the work and just sit there looking pretty, we work hard, we train hard, we pull our weight. But now we are being told that on race day, despite being good paddlers, despite showing up to practices, despite working hard, we will be swapped out so there can be more guys on the boat, regardless of which paddler has more experience, or shows up to more practices, or has earned a chance to race.

No.

Just…no. That’s not right.

So now us women find ourselves in an uncomfortable position because not only is our new coach saying this but our captain is siding with her. We were muttering to each other during warm up, suggestions were made quietly that maybe all the woman should boycott one practice to show what is missing when we aren’t there, comments were thrown out that if we aren’t going to get to race then we won’t be showing up to practices and giving our time to the team if the team is going to shelve us. But for all that we were unhappy and angry and quietly speaking to each other we weren’t speaking out. We weren’t calling bullshit on this sexist regime that seemed to be slowly taking over our team. It’s bad enough for a coach who is new to our team and who maybe hasn’t realized just how strong our women are to say this but for our captain who knows us, knows how hard we work, to side with her because of reasons I can’t even fathom, well, it’s enough to make a girl want to walk out on practice.

This was the first practice I have ever had where I didn’t give it my all. Why should I give everything at practice if I’m not going to get to race? Why give so much of myself to my team if I am not an equal member of my team? Over the span of the practice my anger at the situation grew but I had no idea what to do about it. I can’t just yell at the captain, what will that get me? Kicked off the team probably. Anger didn’t seem like the right way to respond to this situation but I couldn’t look past my anger to see what should be done.

After practice, when we were all by the lockers our captain brought it up, said we as a team needed to talk about this because people seemed upset. He said that we had agreed as a team that we wanted to move up to the next level and maybe we didn’t realize sacrifices would need to be made in order to get to that next level. To which one of the women responded that it is the team, as it is now, with our women paddlers, who got the team to where it is, who brought us to the level we are at, and that shouldn’t be discounted. It was also asked why did he think we couldn’t get to the next level with the women on our team paddling? Who says we can’t get there if we race with women on the boat? Other things were said, comments made, the new coach walked in on our pow-wow and threw her two cents in to the ring. In the end a vote was taken, who wanted to keep things as is, not recruit anymore men to the boat, keep our ratio of women-to-men, and do our best. Hands went up all around. Even the guys hands. One of the guys said who races should be based on who earns a spot on the boat on race day which we all agree with, it’s always been like that with us. If you show up to practice, if you train hard, if you are a good paddler, basically if you earn your seat, then you race. If you slack off, don’t show to practices, don’t try to improve your technique then you stand a higher chance of being sat out on race day (assuming we have more paddlers than spots in the boat).

I’m glad this got brought out in the open and talked about, that people could say to the team what they were thinking/feeling about this new policy, but I’m also still upset. This shouldn’t have happened. Gender has never been an issue on the boat, it should never have become one. It should always be about who earned their spot, who worked for it, not about if you’re a man or woman.

I also don’t know if I believe that on race day there won’t be more women sat out than men. We won’t really know if the coach and/or captain are going to stick to what we as a team voted for until it is race day but I sure hope they don’t go back on what we all agreed on. I’m not good at trusting people, and now two people who I’m supposed to trust to put the good of the team before their own agenda have outed themselves as people who are biased against women…I don’t want to spend the season constantly keeping an eye out for gender biased behaviour but I am already feeling a bit stressed and on guard about it, like I have to keep an eagle eye out to make sure the women on my team don’t get screwed over, sigh. This could really suck…

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Middle Ground

15 Mar

I’ve got a pair of pants that when I bought them I thought they fit but once I got them home and wore them out for the first time I realized they were actually a bit too big. The crotch (I hate that word! lol) was too low so it rubbed against the inside of my thighs causing pain and raw skin…too much info? only happens to me? Yeah, sigh, figures… 😉 lol

Anyways! I put the pants in the dryer, a calculated risk, that I hoped would prove to be a smart idea. It did, sorta. The pants, after a couple runs through the dryer fit better around the waist, butt, hips and leg areas. They were a tad shorter than I like but not so much shorter I can’t still wear them with a variety of shoes. Phew! My legs are so long I hang to dry all pants because they can very quickly become too short and I look like that person who is expecting a flood 24/7 lol 😛

So today for work I wore the pants. I was maaaaaybe an hour in to my shift and every time I was standing or walking I was also pulling the pants up a bit and wishing I’d worn a belt. They were fitting looser in all areas but of course were still the tad too short they had been since the dryer stints.

I don’t know if this means I have lost a little bit of weight (please oh please mean I have lost some weight! *crosses fingers*) or if it means my pants have stretched out a bit or didn’t shrink quite as much as I realized. Obviously I’m hoping I got smaller not that my pants got bigger.

I seem to appear to be back in the middle ground of clothing sizes. I hate the middle ground. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, it is that stage where you are becoming too small for one size but are still too big for the next size down so your clothes don’t fit nicely no matter what you wear. It sucks even if it is an indication you’re on the right track.

this goes for all clothes

this goes for all clothes

Thing is, I can’t think of anything that would have made me slim down a bit so I’m leaning towards the pants stretching out, which sucks.

I’ve been working on making small changes with my food, cutting out the processed foods I’d been enjoying during my off season, drinking more water, making sure to get protein in at every meal (well, ok, almost every meal, this is me after all lol), and, the big one, I’m eating less peanut butter! Shocking I know! I mean c’mon, I am the person who happily eats a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter and considers it a meal lol But yeah, small changes to my eating, nothing major, nothing to warrant slimming down enough to make pants fit looser.

One happy bonus to the pants fitting loosely this evening was it made it easier to resist bad-for-me-foods cause I kept thinking “if I have lost some weight I don’t wanna gain it back by making a stupid food choice” lol Oh the things I use for increasing my willpower! 😛

I have noticed lately that I am finding it easier to resist the foods that usually have me caving. Weird huh? Weird but awesome! If I walk through the bakery section at the grocery store I may glance at all the bakery items I usually drool over but I don’t pause and I definitely don’t buy. I contemplated pizza earlier in the week but easily managed to not order it. I’m finding it easier to not eat the foods at work.

I’m not sure where this increase in willpower has come from but I like it! 🙂 Maybe it’s because it’s dragon boat season again and I want to be in peak condition for practices and for the upcoming race season. Maybe it’s because I am “training” for the BMO Run and keep having horrifying images of a fat me being the last to cross the finish line at the run. Maybe it’s because I have had two auditions in the past two weeks (hoorah!) and want to look better and better for each upcoming audition. That and obviously the more confident I feel about how I look the less I will worry about it when in front of the camera meaning the more I can focus on my acting…and the  more I will look “right” according to casting directors.

It’s probably some combination of all these things and more, who knows what is lurking in my sub-conscious? lol 😉

Whatever it is, I am glad for it. Glad to be that person who easily walks past all the high calorie, processed, so tasty but so bad for me foods and buys the healthy stuff. Glad to be getting back to the way I used to be. Glad that this juuuuust might be the first step towards a healthier, stronger, slimmer me. *crosses fingers*

take the first step, put down the cookie!

take the first step, put down the cookie!

 

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What’s Your Goal?

13 Mar

Everyone has a different goal, sure they can often times be lumped in to groups but each person’s goal is unique. In terms of weight loss the main groups I have been focused on lately are:

– get skinny

– get strong

The reason I am focused so much on these two groups is because for the loooongest time if you had asked me my goal it was “to get skinny”. That’s it, end of story. All I wanted, more than anything, was to be skinny. I’m decently tall for a girl (5’8″) and feel it is grossly unfair I am not also skinny, aren’t tall girls supposed to be skinny? *pout* All my Weight Watchers, low calorie, paleo (and more!) eating plans were followed because of the promise I would lose weight and I interpreted that as “I would get skinny”, after all, that’s what happens when you lose weight, right? All my hiking, treadmill running, HIIT training, weight lifting, squat challenges etc were all done for the same reason, to get me skinny.

Obviously that hasn’t happened.

Over the past couple months or so my goal has, hmm, I don’t want to say completely changed but…shifted I guess? Evolved. Altered. Broadened.

Now when I think of how I want to look it’s not just “skinny” it’s a combination of words: skinny, fit, obvious muscle definition, strong.

I want to be strong.

Not body builder strong, *shudder* but my body’s version of strong.

I say “my body’s” because I firmly believe not every body can achieve the same “look”. I heard this from a trainer years ago and I have to say, it makes sense to me. My body has a natural build, that I sadly, covered in excess squishy-ness but under all my squishy-ness there is a body type that I have to work with. I have hips, not just cause there is fat on them but because my skeletal frame gave me curvy hips, some women have super slim hips sometimes referred to as guy’s hips, no matter how much I diet, how much I work out, unless I get plastic surgery I will always have curvy hips. Just like the woman with the super slim hips will always have super slim hips.  You can’t change what your bones are doing. You have to just deal with what you have and work with it.

fat grapefruit

As I have come to terms with this I took a look around for inspiration, for women who have the physical look that I am trying to achieve. Whereas before I used to think of Nicole Kidman or Julia Roberts or any number of runway models and obsess over how they are so skinny and I want to be soooo skinny but how the hell do I get to look like them?? Now I am thinking more along the lines of Michelle Rodriguez. She is slim, has muscle definition, nobody doubts she is strong (and not strong for a girl but simply strong), curvy, fit and feminine. The feminine part is important because I find the media forgets that women who are strong can also be girly.

Michelle Rodriguez - slim but with muscle

Michelle Rodriguez – slim but with muscles

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman – sooooo skinny

I realized that a lot of the fitness activities I partake in were never going to get me to “skinny”, because while yes they provided cardio and burned calories the activities I lean towards also involve working my muscles and that will automatically strengthen my muscles…which, if I am lucky, will give me some level of muscle definition. Actually, I know it will give me muscle definition cause last dragon boat season my shoulders and arms had actual definition that I lost during the off season and am oh-so-hoping to get back soon. Muscle memory how I am relying on you!

For a while I worried that I was focusing more on getting strong because I thought I was incapable of achieving skinny, I was looking at my change of perception, my change of goal as a failure. But now, I don’t think that is what this is about. It’s not just about my being realistic for what I can achieve either. It is what I want. I could cut my food intake drastically, do nothing but cardio and let my body eat away at itself until I am super skinny but then what? I won’t be able to dragon boat, I’ll be too weak to compete. I won’t be able to make it up the side of a mountain when I go hiking, I’ll have no stamina or strength to manage the trails. I won’t be able to enter things like the BMO run. I’d never finish the course. For all that I want to be skinny, I want to be strong more. I want to be able to enjoy the various activities I take part in. I want to be able to sign up for a new challenge and know I’ll be able to work hard towards completing it. I want to not just keep up with others but pass them by – hey, what can I say, I’m competitive! 😉

The happy side effect of this new goal, this goal of attaining strength, muscle definition and being fit is that it will automatically make me look slimmer. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat so if I can swap out my fat (obviously not all of it or I’d be dead lol) for muscle I’ll look slimmer, be stronger, get my muscle definition aaaaand manage to uncover the body that I hid underneath all this squishy-ness. And wouldn’t that just be fab? 🙂

sorry for the random girl in her underwear...

sorry for the random girl in her underwear…

sidenote: I didn’t put dragon boating in the list of activities I do to attain the goal of skinny because I dragon boat because of how much I love the sport…it just has the sweeeeeet side effect of being a fitness activity lol

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Let’s Hear Your Battle Cry!

6 Mar

I popped a Halls right before meeting my dragon boat team for practice this evening and the message on the wrapper was: Let’s Hear Your Battle Cry!

Hear me roar!

Hear me roar!

It was the perfect inspirational message, from the most unlikely source. lol

Practice tonight was all kinds of awesome! 😀 How do I know this? Because I am in sooooo much muscle pain right now lol Don’t worry, it’s the good kind of muscle pain not the crap-I-hurt-myself-again kind of pain.

We have a new coach and she is a lot tougher on us than our former coach. Which we are all, oddly enough, happy about. What can I say, dragon boaters, well anybody who takes part in a competitive sport, is a little kooky lol

It was raining but not cold, which is nice, what is also nice is when it is sorta chilly out there are fewer icky smells. Hey, it’s not clean water and once it’s summer our noses will be well aware of it 😛 On the plus side, there are some otters that come live in the training area during the summer and it’s always nice to see them. They pop their heads above the water and watch us and once they know we aren’t headed directly towards them they float on their backs and chill. Everybody saw awwwwwww! Cause we always do! teehee

omg could I be any cuter??

omg could I be any cuter??

Our new coach is focusing on our rotation which means my left ass cheek now hates me cause I sit on the left side of the boat so that is my pivot side and omg two hours of pivoting on one specific spot, ouch! I have a fat ass but at the same time it is bony, how that is possible I don’t know but it is. It’s always been like that, shrug. This means I am basically rubbing a bony part of my ass on the wooden bench cause I’m pivoting on it…the things I do for my sport! lol 😉

Dragon boating is all about core strength, you’re pulling the paddle through the water via the body rotation, it uses major muscles in your legs, core and shoulders. Which means a really great workout! It also means all those muscle groups are sore right now but it’s ok, they’ll be fine tomorrow. I’m hoping my muscle memory kicks in asap cause I’m not as strong as I was last season – that’s what comes from being a slacker during the off season – so I want to get that fixed. Whiiiiich means more gym visits, more hanging out with dumbbells, more push-ups, just…more!

Something I learned this evening, my new waterproof pants I bought a couple weeks ago? Awesome! Loved them! My waterproof jacket from last season? Not so awesome, sigh, it is no longer water proof on my left side which is the side I get splashed on, double sigh. Looks like I’m gonna hafta find money to buy a new waterproof jacket, ugh. Why oh why do items used for sports have to cost so much money?? *cringe* There should be tax breaks or discounts or something on sport clothes, I mean, if people are making an effort to get or stay in shape in a society that is involved in an obesity crisis they should get a break on the cost of the gear, in my humble and very poor opinion…and yes I know not all people who are large are that way because of their lifestyle habits, it could be because of health issues, I’m just whining because I am poor and now need to figure out how to afford a new waterproof jacket, I’m not trying to start a big debate on a touchy topic. Cause yeah, that so isn’t my blog style lol 😛

The only upside I am seeing to needing to buy a new jacket is I’m not that fond of the colour of the one I have so hopefully I’ll be able to get one I like better…on sale…a reeeeally good sale…

 

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Headlamps an Stuff

27 Feb

I have been sick since Sunday and instead of getting better I appear to be getting worse, arg. It’s not a debilitating illness or anything, just a run of the mill cold but I’m smack in the middle of the symptoms and it’s annoying. Kleenex are my new best friend. *rolls eyes* I’ve been purposefully not letting it slow me down so Tuesday I went snowshoeing, Wednesday (today) I went to the gym and Thursday I will be dragon boating. A nice busy three days off from work! 🙂

I’m so psyched for Thursday, it will be our first time back on the water this season and it’s gonna rock and suck all at once lol. We won’t be on the water till about 7:15pm so it will be dark and cold and this year head lamps are mandatory. Guess who doesn’t own a head lamp? Oh yeah, that’d be me lol

I wasn’t aware until last night we were going to need them so when I was out today I did a little shopping. Silly thing cost me $45! It is a white LED light but if I am in distress I can push a button and it will flash red, interesting huh? I think I will actually get to return it though, yay! One of my teammates found some for way cheaper, only $11, so she bought a bunch and I can just buy one from her. Which means back to the store I will be going to return the head lamp but hey, a special trip to get money back? I’m cool with that!

Since I was at SportChek I also bought an Olympic Team Canada t-shirt. I know, I know, cheesy or what but, shrug, I’ve been wanting one since the collection came out and now that the Olympics are done they are on sale lol. Cheesy and cheap! 😉 The t-shirt apparently has great wicking capabilities blah blah blah, I’m sure it is great, and I did buy it wanting to wear it when exercising but let’s get real, I didn’t buy it cause it’d suck my sweat away from my body quickly, I bought it cause I like it lol 😛

my new t-shirt, hopefully it will inspire me when I work out

my new t-shirt, hopefully it will inspire me when I work out

Then I bought a toque! Ack! I’d say it was like a shopping demon came over me but I already knew I was needing to find a new toque, shrug. All but the Olympic collection toques were gone, winter gear is being phased out because spring is soon to be upon us, wOOt! So I bought an Olympic gear toque, it’s actually really nice, red and black, I didn’t buy the one that says Canada on it cause clothes that scream your country’s name are so vulgar *shudder* Unless you are a spectator at a sport your clothes should not say your country’s name, or unless it is your independence day and you are celebrating your country, then it’s ok. So yeah, toque, t-shirt and headlamp, quite the productive little shopping trip.

Not that you were wondering, but the reason I so suddenly need another toque is because I looooove my toque that I wear for snowshoeing and that means I do not want to wear it when dragon boating cause it’ll get wet with nasty water and I have no idea how to wash my snowshoeing toque. It is a hand made product, not like it has a tag inside saying how to wash it! I gotta be careful, and making sure that toque doesn’t come in to contact with the water I dragon boat in well, that’s just good ownership lol

I’ve got a couple other pieces of gear I need for dragon boating buuuuut have no money to buy them soooooo just gonna have to do without, shrug.

Hmmm, this quickly became quite the post about shopping, oops! Lemme catch you up on other stuff real quick…

– We got snow! As in lots of snow! Three days worth of non stop snow! Lovely! I was so happy while it was falling, every time I went out in it or looked outside it made me smile. Made most other people grumps but whatev. I so desperately wanted to go snowshoeing in the falling snow but was too sick for that, boo!

while snowshoeing, gorgeous!

while snowshoeing, gorgeous!

– The avalanche warning was high but I like to think that makes things more interesting lol. It was so sunny you could hear the snow melting and a couple times I got pelted with snowballs that were actually chunks of snow falling off trees. 🙂 I ass-tobogganed part way down the mountain which was epic and I sooo want to do again! lol I went off trail on the way down so I could walk through some fresh snow, it’s way more fun, well, I got to a part that was super steep and no way could I climb down it, instead of going back and finding the trail again I sat down, had my knees bent, snowshoes on the ground in front of me (feet still strapped in them) and let myself slide down using the snowshoes to steer me, clear the path so my butt slid smoothly and also act as breaks when needed. Seriously, most fun ever! There was a minor issue of not being able to stop in time at this one section and becoming a tad airborne but meh, I landed on soft snow so who cares? Just made it more fun actually…I’m really hoping I get to do that again lol

– Some not so cool stuff, I keep getting sick! My immune system is really taking a beating this year, I am not impressed at its lackluster performance in the germ kicking business.

– I bought a piece of fish I have noooo idea how to cook, sigh. It is coconut encrusted, sounded interesting and was on sale. Perfect combo! I am going to (most likely) attempt to cook it tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes *worried face* I really hope I don’t food poison myself before practice, that would suck!

– I skipped Stir Fry Sunday this week cause I was too sick to want food Sunday or Monday and by Tuesday it just seemed like I was destined to not have stir fry this week. I will be back to my stir fry madness this coming weekend though, no worries!

– I discovered the deliciousness that is cherries in a cherry sauce put on top of ice cream, trust me, this is something you should try, Mmm!

– The cat got mad at me and purposefully peed on the floor right in front of his litter box to show his anger. You’d think I’d get mad, instead I realized that because I’d been sick when I’d been home the past couple days (this was on Monday) I was unconscious so I made a concentrated effort to stay home and conscious more and since then he’s been much happier. Yes I am aware he has me well trained. 😛

– Lastly, I missed three days in a row of my Squat Circuit Challenge because of being sick. Sunday and Monday I got home from work and basically crashed. Then Tuesday I forgot, which is weird, I think because I was out of the rhythm of it. So starting tomorrow I will pick up where I stopped. I hate that I inadvertently took a bit of a break in the middle but whatcha gonna do, can’t control being sick, shrug.

There we have it, my catch up of the last couple days. Food, exercise and shopping…apparently that is my life this past week lol 😛

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Buh-Bye Sochi Olympics

27 Feb

Sigh, I kinda miss the Olympics. For all that I was getting overly saturated with sports now that the Olympics are over I’m a little sad. *pout*

Sunday after work, I got home and automatically turned the tv on, it was set to the channel I had been using for the Olympics coverage but…there was no Olympics…it was the news. The news?! WTF? Not gonna lie, I was a little confused until I remembered that it was all over. Back to the real world.

I had gotten used to exercising in my living room while watching the Olympics, I had gotten used to checking my Sochi App done by CBC to keep up to date on everything, I had gotten used to caring about sports I normally never care about lol. 😛

I’ll let you in on a little secret about me, I am very un-Canadian because…brace for it…I don’t care about hockey! *ducks down* Don’t throw stuff at me, k? But for the Olympics? All over the hockey! The women’s Canadian team dominated, then the men followed suit! They made us so proud. 😀

I had to be up freakishly early for work Sunday anyways so I saw the men’s final hockey game. Sweden may not have scored but they sure as heck made the Canadian team fight for their win. I felt so bad for Sweden when Canada got that third goal, you could see their shoulders slump down as if they realized their chance at getting gold was almost nil, it was sad, shrug. Not that I believe in letting another team score a point so they feel better, but we could have gone without scoring that third to make the win less crushing…but I s’pose in the midst of a game you aren’t thinking like that. Actually, I know in the midst of a competition you don’t think like that lol my dragon boat team doesn’t care about the feelings of the people we are racing against during a race, it’s only after that we think about how the other teams might feel and are friendly to them again. This isn’t just our team though, all the teams are friendly on land, dragon boaters are a friendly bunch, even if we do yell a lot during a race! lol

There were so many high points to the Olympics but already they all seem like old news. I won’t remember the athletes names by the next Olympics, I’ll spend the first part of the next Winter Olympics trying to remember if I was cheering for this person or that person in 2014. For all that these athletes become so important to their countries during the Olympics, they quickly slip back in to daily life once it’s all over and I never hear a thing about them again…except for that Crosby guy cause he was the face of Dempster’s Bread for a while. I guess in a way it is proof of how they are just like everybody else. They have to work, they have to train, they have to go through their daily routine and how could they do that if they were constantly being in the media?

Regardless of it all being over I will hold on to the happy moments for a while yet, they still make me smile and why stop thinking about things that make you smile? Do you not want to smile? *raised eyebrow*

hockey

 

In case the words are too small on the image here is what it says:

Lovely people those Canadians. Gentle, civilized,  beautiful people.

Until you give them hockey sticks.

Why does the Canadian army even bother with guns, and tanks, and bombs and shit?

They should just give them all hockey sticks

And then say, “There you are boys, the Taliban have the puck.”

teehee, it started floating around the internet the other day and it makes me laugh, even if it does exclude the womens hockey teams.

Oh, and as a side note, the happy moments from the Olympics that I am remembering are not the medals won, though those are awesome, it’s the other stories.

– Patrick Chan apologizing for getting silver not gold. He did us proud, and yet he apologizes, not once but twice! Made me wanna give him a hug and a cookie lol

– The emotional connection I felt to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir while they performed, it was achingly beautiful.

– Pictures of all three Dufour-Lapointe sisters. Two of the three got medals but they all celebrated together.

– Charles Hamelin laying on top of a side board to reach his girlfriend to give her a kiss after his 1500m speed skate race. He did that at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics too and it’s adorable.

– The goofy pictures the figure skating team took together.

– Cross-country coach Justin Wadsworth running out to the race course and giving the Russian skier a new ski (his was broken) so he could cross the finish line with dignity.

– Gilmore Junio giving up his spot in his race so his teammate could race.

– The Jamaican bobsled team. I’m sorry but I love them no matter where they place! The level of dedication they have, mind blowing.

There are so many other moments, too many to write about here, especially considering they are floating all over the internet and have been plastered all over tvs for the past couple weeks, you probably know all the stories I know and more lol But it’s those moments, the human moments, that I will remember. Except for hockey and curling I won’t remember who won what medals, I won’t remember scores, or race times, what I will remember is seeing people represent their countries, do their best, push themselves beyond physical limits that most of us will never even get close too.

All the athletes are inspiring, and that is what I will remember most. 🙂

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Chatty Cathy Corner…Only I’m Not Cathy…

15 Feb

I don’t usually use my blog to talk about movies or tv shows. I have occasionally posted a link to a youtube video for a song I abso love but that’s about it.

Well, I just finished watching the movie Captain Phillips and am so blown away by it I feel I have to say something, to someone, and since my computer is within easy reach, and all of my friends are sleeping, you dear readers are the people I am going to tell. lol. So why don’t you grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy my random chattiness…

captain-phillips-poster

Go watch Captain Phillips. It was amazing, incredible, gripping.

Tom Hanks has a way of making you believe right from the moment he shows up on your screen that he is that character. And as Captain Phillips he humanized the Somali pirates and helped me (if only briefly) feel pity for them. This movie, while being about the first American ship being taken over by pirates in 200 years wasn’t all Pro-America-aren’t-we-great yadda yadda yadda. It was about normal people, put in a crappy situation…but that description right there, about people being in a crappy situation, describes both the Americans on the ship and the pirates who boarded them.

If you followed the news in 2009 then you already know how the movie ends, but in case you are like me and didn’t follow the news, or just forgot how it all turned out, I won’t spoil the ending by saying what happens. All I will say is I 100% recommend you (yes, you!) watch this movie, the acting alone makes it worth it, but the acting combined with the story will keep your eyes glued to your screen for the entire length of the movie, and how often does that happen? 🙂

On a completely different note, the trainer my lil sis and I worked with emailed us pictures he took of us while we performed various exercises so we would remember what they looked like. I printed them out today and stuck them on my fridge so now I have no excuse to not do them. I also printed a copy for my lil sis but doubt she’ll be happy to see that lol. All the exercises are designed to be things that can be done in a gym or at home, hence sticking the print out on my fridge where I will see it everytime I go to get food. There are a couple I can’t reeeeally do here but only because they involve my arms stretched straight above my head and my ceiling is too low for that, I could go on my knees for those, I think that’ll get me the same benefit as standing…maybe…I don’t really know…maybe I’ll just stand in the hall outside my door and hope my landlord doesn’t walk by lol

My Squat Circuit Challenge is going well, Saturday will be Day 7. So far I haven’t had any problems with my knees which is a relief. I think because instead of doing only the standard squat I am doing the 5 different squats it is somehow easier on the joints, I don’t know why I think that makes sense but in my head it does so I’m going with it lol

One Week Done!

One Week Done!

I’ve really got to decide what I am doing about this Ripped In 30 Jillian Michaels dvd challenge. Every now and then I pull out the dvd, pop it in and do the workout for Week 1. It is a good workout and weeks 2, 3 and 4 hold the promise of a real ass whooping but since I never do the first full week I’ve never bumped myself up to the next level workout. There is also a meal plan that I have yet to access online cause ya know, that’s how I roll apparently lol I should have started the Squat Circuit Challenge and the Jillian Michaels challenge on the same day then I could use the one to prompt the other buuuut I only just came up with that brilliant idea *rolls eyes* When I google results from her workout dvd there are amazing pics online, people seem to do really well following her workout dvd and meal plan so you’d think I’d be right on that but for some reason I’m not. I don’t even have an excuse for why I haven’t started the challenge, I just haven’t…sigh…

Why oh why haven't I seriously started this yet??

Why oh why haven’t I seriously started this yet??

My last bit of news is I got woken up by a phone call from the doctor today, oh joy. They got the results from my most recent x-rays and blood tests in and I yet again have to go in to talk to her about them. Ugh. I’m so done with that, can’t I just wait to see the specialist? Oh but wait, no, no I can’t cause she says I have to go in to talk about them. I’m not a big fan of doctors and all these repeated visits are irritating me. I’m not nervous this time about what she is going to say, she seemed to get all the scary words out of her system last time *rolls eyes*, I figure she’ll use the same scary words this time, or it’ll be worse (which I doubt due to my being very much aware of the pain level in my hip at every second of my day) or it will be magically better (which again, I doubt since I’m the one feeling the pain in my hip and that isn’t going anywhere). What could she possible tell me she hasn’t already? Aaaaand, I suppose by typing that I am tempting fate now aren’t I? sigh. I just want it fixed so it doesn’t cause me problems during dragon boat season which, oh yeah! That was my other news! lol

Grr! I am dragon, hear me roar!

Grr! I am dragon, hear me roar!

My team signed a new coach, yay! Who has decided we are starting our on the water training Feb 27th instead of mid to late March like we normally do. This means (1) I’m super stoked to be getting back on the water! (2) my first practice of the season is the day prior to my meeting with the hip specialist which is not the order I would have preferred that to happen in and (3) I’m gonna have to hurry and buy my new water proof pants (mine stopped being waterproof part way through last season, it was weird)

All done your tea? Good, so am I! 🙂

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