Tag Archives: exercise

Thwarted!

13 Sep

I have been trying to do this stupid hike for over a week now and it keeps not happening, eesh! You wouldn’t think it’d be that hard, not like the mountain is going anywhere, but life keeps getting in the way and I keep putting it off. I really want to hike it before the weather turns but each time I have to put it off for another day I worry I have missed my last shot, erg.

No, the hike I want to do is not a second attempt at the Grouse Grind, stupid freakin grind, ugh, it is the path near-ish the grind, it starts at the base of the same mountain, and ends up at the top somewhere near where the grind ends but it is a longer trail and apparently winds back on itself quite a bit making the path less steep and theoretically a tad easier to do. It’s supposed to take anywhere from 20 minutes to a half hour longer then whatever time you take on the grind, which is depressing when you consider my time lol but since it’s a longer trail you (well, I) could just pretend the longer time is strictly cause of the trail length and has nothing to do with my physical capabilities…or lack there of… 😉

I wanted to go on the hike last Sunday, took a change of clothes to work an everything so as soon as I was off I could skedaddle on over to the mountain but it was raining and I had to decide if I should hike the mountain and maybe get a bit wet or put it off, I decided I’d hike and started to drive there but while driving the rain got heavier and heavier and eventually I turned around. I may be mildly self destructive and like doing slightly dangerous things but even I know not to hike a mountain on a path that is not busy, that I’ve never been on, as it is getting darker and it is raining, when I don’t have rain gear with me or a hiking buddy. Calculated risks people! 😛 I went to the gym instead and of course when I left the gym it was sunny and dry outside so I’m thinking the rain didn’t last all that long and I might have been ok after all…ah well, next time.

I was going to go Tuesday, for the life of me I can’t remember what I did instead but something came up, no biggy cause I had Thursday that I could go so that was my plan for Thursday (today), hike that freakin trail, that was it, the one main thing on my list of stuff to do, not so bad right? Well, ha! I was up early and contemplating food (figured I’d eat before this hike, unlike last time…) when I got a phone call for an interview (aka, measurement taking/fitting) to be a fit model for a clothing store.  We made an appointment for noon which kaboshed my hike happening in the morning cause that gave me just enough time to get ready and find the place. After the fitting I figured ok, now I can eat (finally! it was about 1pm or so) and then go for the hike. Got to the apartment, was again contemplating food when I got a text from my agent that I had an audition at 7:50p that night. Well yah! After my lil happy dance I realized that (1) hike is not happening and (2) neither is my lunch…sigh.

I decided against the hike cause everyone knows not to do anything outside of your normal routine leading up to an audition, can’t take the risk of getting hurt cause you don’t know what you are doing…that and I worried what if I took a ridonkulous amount of time on the trail and made myself late for the audition? Not happening! So I took a nap instead, hey, don’t judge, I was tired 😛 and then I did some ab work etc and stuff around the apartment.

So there we have it, life and weather have thwarted my attempts to hike that trail! I’m still hopeful for next week, if the weather stays nice that is…

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, a fit model is exactly what it sounds like, it’s the model the designers use when making new clothes to make sure the outfit hangs the way it should on an actual person. I don’t know if I got the job though…on the one hand I am the perfect size for them in pants and shirts and they were really happy with that but apparently my spine is an inch too short (that’s one I haven’t heard before!) so it makes the jackets sit a little funny at the back…they are going to see a couple more people to check their measurements and have them do some fittings and they’ll let me know. It’s a very very part time thing, about 4 hours per day max 2 days per week, just enough to get me a little extra cash really.

As for the audition, it was for a commercial, I went in for one role and the casting director kinda merged the one I went in for and another one and had me audition for some weird hybrid lol. My agent thinks it’s a good thing, a sign they will consider me for both roles not just the one, I’m happy to think that way too. 🙂 The audition seemed to go ok, casting director was in a good mood despite it being late and me being the last person she was seeing. She liked my headshot, we joked around a bit, all good signs. Thing is, even if she thinks I’m awesome if I don’t have the right look I won’t get the part…ya know, if I don’t get the part, and I don’t get the fit model job that means twice in one day I will have been rejected for not looking right and/or being the wrong size…something I am going to desperately try not to dwell on…

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Couple Weeks Ago…

7 Sep

A couple weeks ago I had this awesome week, was super active, always seemed to be doing something, not every part of it was good stuff but hey, life isn’t 100% good stuff so ya gotta make room for the crap stuff every now an then lol 😛

I tried some new activities and want to give my take on them:

The Grouse Grind

This is a hike in North Vancouver, BC that is pure evil, grr! to you Grind, grr! It’s not that it isn’t do-able, people hike it everyday but it isn’t fun and costs you$10 at the end…lemme explain…you drive there, you pay for parking, you hike up 2.9 km (1.8 miles) and sure that doesn’t sound like a long distance but think of how this hike is described, it’s called “mother nature’s stairmaster” I kid you not! Go look at the website for it: http://www.grousemountain.com/grousegrind then when you get to the top you have to pay $10 to take a gondola ride down the mountain so you can rush back to your car before your parking expires because you mistakenly thought you’d do the hike in a short-ish amount of time so didn’t pay for too long of parking…hmm, that last part might be just me…lol. It’s not a fun hike, which is what I realized part way up the mountain. I thought it was just me who wasn’t having fun (I went alone, most people seem to go with someone), but when I looked at other peoples faces as they were going up they all had the same look on their face, one of torture. Uh, why the hell are we all climbing this stupid mountain if it isn’t fun?? Everyone looks like they are being forced to suffer through some torturous ordeal but uh, hello, didn’t we all make the choice to be there? And no way they were all first timers like me, so some of them must have known what they were getting in to, and yet, they went back, what’s with that? I guess a lot of people use the mountain as a personal challenge and keep returning so they can better their time, it’s like a point of pride or something…weirdos! lol

Most of the hike is man made stairs but every now and then is a part where nature has been allowed to stay in charge so you do a bit of scrambling over rocks (boulders? no, I think they are rocks…what’s the difference?) I prefer the rocks to the stairs. I like to hike, like for real hike, not climb a bunch of stairs hike, if I wanted stairs I’d go use a stairmaster at my gym lol, but ah well, it was still an experience and one I am glad I did, if only so I can say I did it lol.

My recommendation though would be to not do as I did and hike it on one of the hottest days of the year with minimal water in your pack and having not yet eaten anything that day (oh, and it was around 3p or so I think so not like I had only skipped breakfast, oops!), if you are hydrated, dressed for the weather, fed and not being roasted to death by the sun you’ll probably do all right. 🙂

The next thing I did that was new to me that week waaaas…

Bikram’s Yoga

For those of you who don’t know, that is a series of 26 yoga poses that last 90 minutes and are performed in a room heated to 40C with 40% humidity…so it’s hot! I paid $30 for a week of unlimited classes at a studio near my place. A friend from dragon boating said I have to go at least 5 times that first week because any less then 5 times I will hate it, 5 times or more and I will love it. I wanted to get the most out of my unlimited for a week so I made it my main source of exercise for that week. They teachers say your only goal for your first 5 classes (there is that number again) is to stay in the room, even if you feel overwhelmed by the heat just lay down on your mat and try to get through it, yeah, it is just that hot! lol. I managed to go 4 times in that week and am happy to say I not only stayed in the room each time but I performed all 26 poses each time, meaning, I didn’t stop and rest on my mat cause I couldn’t take it, yah me! Hey, don’t judge! I’ll take positive re-enforcement where I can find it! lol 😛 The Bikram yoga websites and teachers all tout the amazingness of this style of yoga (of course) and apparently there are all kinds of health benefits etc…I don’t know about any of that, but I do know you sweat a lot and I figure that has to be good for detoxifying your body, right? I dehydrated one day, got all dizzy, ran in to a wall in my apartment when going from the bathroom to my bedroom, kinda crazy, so it really is important to hydrate. It is suggested drinking lots of water the day prior and the day of your Bikram yoga session, I suppose since we should all be staying hydrated anyways this shouldn’t be a problem but who are we kidding? We all slip up at some point, shrug.

I decided against continuing on with Bikram’s Yoga. Even though I know a bunch of people who swear by it it’s really expensive and not what I am needing at this point for my main form of exercise. If it wasn’t so freakishly expensive I’d be really tempted to continue on with it, using it as part of my exercise routine but $160/month is too much to spend if I’m only going two times a week. You have to be really committed to Bikram’s to get your moneys worth.

Since then I have been doing my normal stuff, dragon boat practices (although season just ended, sadness, so no more of that for a while), gym time…I unfortunately got really sick two weekends ago and it was a pathetic recovery, took longer then I would like so I stayed away from the gym longer then I wanted to, mostly cause I had no energy, if walking to the store across the street caused me to get light headed and a bit dizzy I figured going to the gym was probably a bad idea lol. I seem to be all better now so I’ll be starting my gym time again soon, probably tomorrow before work. I’m going to be signing up for my boxing classes again once payday comes around since that’s my off season sport and I’m looking in to trying OC’ing, something a lot of dragon boaters seem to do once db season has ended…not sure I want to be on the water during the winter though, brr! lol 🙂

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A Fresh Start

13 Aug

Alright so I haven’t been on here if for-evah! I know it, you know it, we all know it…so can we just forget about it and move onwards? Please? 😀

Where did I go? Nowhere exciting lol. I’ve still been here, doing the same ol same ol that is my life, I just haven’t been blogging about it because well, I couldn’t figure out what to blog about. It was easy when I was on Weight Watchers, I could talk about the points, what I ate, how I followed or didn’t follow the plan, it was easy to see if I was doing things right or if I was going off course. This new plan I switched to is harder to track, I mean sure I have an app that I use to track all my nutritional information (right down to the macro-nutrients, it’s quite scary actually…) but I wasn’t ever really sure if I was doing things right every day, so how could I type about it, not like it’s fair to ask you to help me figure it out, sigh.

Well, add to the confusion of the new eating plan and my increase in Dragon Boat practices (three times a week, wOOt!) and my laziness (like we didn’t all know that was a factor?? lol) blogging dropped by the wayside…is that the proper expression? I’m never really sure…Oh, and don’t forget my having a life, I do have one of those you know, and it does take time out of my blogging, facebooking, emailing, twittering, msn-ing, google-ing, youtubing when it amps up…hey, something has to give, there isn’t enough time in the day for everything! lol

I managed to get a job, finally! It pretty much rocks, I really like it…not as much as oh say, getting paid to act!!! but it’s a good company, good hours, good people just in general good place so I’m content for now…not that I’m giving up on you Hollywood! I’m still coming for you!…somehow…

An awesome perk to this job is that I get fed there, for a measly $2 I get to eat what the kitchen makes that day and oh my gawd do they make amazing things! Doesn’t matter if it’s lunch or dinner you get a starter (soup or salad), the main course and then dessert, all for $2!! I’ve never eaten so well! The other night I had leg of lamb for dinner, with Mediterranean veggies and roast potato wedges, oh the salad was a Greek salad and there was a strawberry tart for dessert, YUM! Everyday is like this, which is awesome cause well, hello? Foooood! but what sucks is it is gourmet level restaurant quality food (you are thinking that isn’t a sucky thing but for someone trying to lose weight it is!), cause think about it, when trying to lose weight do you eat out 4 times a week? Nope, you don’t! Unless you’re kinda crazy or have a wicked weird lifestyle but let’s not go there k? 😉 And why don’t you eat out 4 times a week? Oh, maybe perhaps because you have no say in how the food is cooked, what ingredients are used…things like that…and you start to GAIN weight! Yeah, you read that right, GAIN weight! Even with all my dragon boat training and gym going I started getting rounder, sigh, and well, that just can’t be allowed to happen!

I took myself off the meal plan today, no more gourmet meals for moi! Nuh-uh! I am going to go back on my low carb, high protein, high healthy fat eating plan and begging mercy from my metabolism. I am going to amp up my exercise routine and hope to hell I can reverse the damage and start going down in sizes again. I’d say down in numbers on the scale but my scale is wonky so I’m going by clothes sizes right now, and how the clothes I currently own are fitting. Jeans are such a good indicator of how your weight is doing aren’t they? Unforgiving bastards that they are…er, I mean, helpful wonderful pants that I could never do without *grumble*

I’m going to go back to basics with my blog, I started using it way back when to hold me accountable because I knew starting Weight Watchers was going to be hard and if I didn’t have other people to be accountable too I’d find it too easy to cheat. I got over that and realized cheating on what I eat or my exercise was cheating myself so I stopped needing this blog to hold me accountable and used it just because I liked to blog. But now, I am going to use it to hold myself accountable. My food will be boring, you’re going to feel pity for my taste buds, and I know on work days when I am smelling all that amazing food, and watching the others eat it and listen to them commenting on it I am going to be sooooo tempted to cheat, but that is where this blog will come in to play (again! lol) If I cheat I have to tell you, and I don’t want to have to admit that I failed, wasn’t strong enough to resist temptation, couldn’t do it. All of you reading this are what is going to help make me strong while I build up my willpower. I can’t believe I let myself slack so much, not when I put in all that hard work. I’ve gotta get back to the grind and this is my first step towards doing that!

On a side note, I know I’ve been away a while but what’s with all these ads at the top of my wordpress screen?? Can I get rid of those, they are super annoying, grr.

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I Stole This…

4 Jun

Alright, so yesterday (Saturday) was the 500m Race Regatta, for those not in the know that is for Dragon Boating. 🙂 I had planned todays blog to be about yesterdays racing and all that happened but it is late (around 2am Monday morning) and I wanna try to get some sleep tonight (I have a cold and breathing is currently quite the challenge so sleep is not a guaranteed restful type of activity right now, sigh) so instead of my Dragon Boating post I am leaving you with a stolen list from http://www.stumbleupon.com  I will not completely endorse this website yet as all I have read is this one article and I followed a link to get there but I like the list and thought you might too.

Enjoy! 😀

Fitness Facts
1) Carbohydrates, protein, fat, and alcohol have 4, 4, 9, and 7 calories per gram respectively.
2) It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound.
3) Insulin and growth hormone have an inverse relationship.
4) The average person can store 500 grams of glycogen.
5) Only fat and protein are essential macronutrients – carbohydrates aren’t.
6) Muscle glycogen is about 3 parts water to 1 part glucose.
7) You burn more calories during the 23 hours you don’t exercise than the 1 hour you do.
8) You don’t need to do cardio to lose weight.
9) The fat burning zone does not burn more total fat calories – only a higher percentage of calories from fat.
10)You’re never too old to do squats.
11) Weight loss is not a physical challenge – it’s a mental one.
12) The scale cannot measure body fat percentage.
13) You can eat anything you want and still lose weight – but weight doesn’t always equal fat.
14) You can’t target fat loss – fat loss is systemic.
15) Muscle does not weigh more than fat – it’s just denser than it.
16) 0 grams of fat on a label doesn’t always mean there’s no fat in the food product.
17) Whole grain bread is still a processed food.
18) Eating healthy is not more expensive than a junk food diet.
19) You can’t calculate body fat percentage from height and weight alone – you need to physically measure it.
20) You can get glucose from both protein and glycerol – not just carbohydrates.
21) Just because a box says “whole grain” on it, it doesn’t make it healthy.
22) You should never attempt weight loss at the expense of your health.
23) Being vegetarian doesn’t just mean you don’t eat meat – it means you follow a plant-based diet.
24) Workout times and negative side effects are positively correlated.
25) Gym membership prices are negotiable.
26) Cooking your food can both lower some nutrient content, and make some more bioavailable.
27) There’s a high correlation between the fitness level of the people close to you, and your own physical fitness.
28) It’s harder to put on 10 pounds of muscle than it is to lose 10 pounds of fat.
29) Once an adult, fat cells can be created, but they cannot be lost – only shrunken.
30) Eating at night does not make you fat – overeating does.
31) You don’t need to do curls to get good biceps.
32) Being skinny does not automatically mean you have a low body fat.
33) The perimeter of the grocery store is where 90% of the healthy food is.
34) If bad food is in the house, you’ll be more likely to eat it.
35) Thyroid hormone output and exercise intensity are positively correlated.
36) Healthy levels of testosterone are good for both men and women.
37) You don’t need a gym membership to strength train.
38) Unless you weigh less than 100 pounds, it’s unlikely you need less than 1000 calories to lose weight.
39) Workout intensity is positively correlated with the degree of EPOC – the afterburn effect.
40) There are 3 types of skeletal muscle fibers – type I, type II-A, and type II-B.
41) 80% of people who begin an exercise program will quit.
42) The body has 3 energy systems – ATP-PC, anaerobic glycolysis, and aerobic.
43) Strength gains come from muscle hypertrophy and improved muscle fiber recruitment.
44) Dehydrating a muscle by 3% can cause a 10% loss of strength.
45) The thermic effect of food (TEF) is highest for protein.
46) Lactic acid is not the cause of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
47) The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest.
48) Direct abdominal exercises are not necessary to get good abs.
49) You can lose weight and still gain muscle; likewise, you can also gain weight while still losing fat.
50) Consistency and patience are key to long term successful weight loss.

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Weirdest Celebration Yet

31 May

So first the good news, heck, not good, try awesome, excellent, amazing, wonderous…or any other kick ass word you can think of lol. I (finally) got a job! wOOt! 😀 *happy dance*

You might be wondering why the hell I’m so happy to get a job when I’m an actress and this is a “day job” not a paid acting gig so let me explain. I am poor. lol. Easy enough. All actors have “day jobs” because acting is a freakish hard industry to break in to and you’ll starve to death before getting paid acting gigs if you’re not careful. Besides that, you are constantly taking classes, getting new headshots, new demo reels, getting copies of your headshots printed to take to auditions, having to maintain your look (hair, eyebrows, clothes, gym sessions), take classes to have new (or maintain) special skills (what, you think I was born with sword fighting skills? I had to take classes for that.) and then some. It’s crazy how much money you put in to acting when you have no idea if you’ll make it or not and that money could be going towards oh say, saving for a down payment on your own home, exotic vacations, laser eye surgery…the list is endless lol.  But if you truly love acting, and if you feel deep down that is what you are meant to be doing and you can’t envision your life as a non-actor, then you suck it up and get a day job…and then channel as much of that money as you can back in to your acting lol.

So I’ve been hunting for ages for a new day job. I got laid off about a year ago and was collecting EI from the government, that got me enough to survive and that’s about it. This job hunt has been going on a while and I did get a couple offers but for jobs that when I was offered the job, as soon as I got off the phone with the person, I either (1) had a panic attack at the idea of taking the job or (2) cried at the idea of taking the job…neither of which are good indicators of how happy I would be in that job. The jobs were office jobs, monday to friday 9-5 type of deals and they scared the crap outta me. Sure, they pay well, but is a decent pay cheque worth my soul? And before you go rolling your eyes and say I’m being overly dramatic let me point out that (1) I’m an actor, of course I’m dramatic and (2) jobs like that crush a person, you don’t notice at first but eventually you get so sucked in to the company, the steady pay cheque, the rut, that you can’t break out and before you know it you’ve wasted years there that you can never get back. I just couldn’t bring myself to say yes, those job offers made me feel backed in to a corner and that I had to run away as fast as I could or else give up my acting dream forever. I mean, come on, if I wanted to have a boring office job I could have stayed in AB and saved myself the cost of moving here, going to acting school, and making a life for myself in BC.

Luck was on my side though and I found a job I really wanted and turns out they really wanted me too, win-win! 😀 It’s not like it’s a crazy awesome sounding job, it’s a receptionist at a retirement community, but it’s perfect for me at this stage of the game. They pay awesome, I get full extended health benefits (I can finally go to a dentist again! lol), ten paid vacation days (not a lot but decent), my birthday is a paid day off once I’ve been there a year, they are super close to where I work (15 minute commute), there is profit sharing and the BEST part is they are willing to work around my acting and my dragon boating! Oh, and the people are super nice, the job sounds interesting enough I won’t be bored senseless but not so stressful I’ll wanna pull out my hair and when I was offered it I did a happy dance while still on the phone being offered the job – much better reaction then panic attacks or crying wouldn’t you say? 🙂

After I got off the phone and called my parents and facebooked and tweeted about getting the job I immediately thought about how to celebrate this happy day. You’re never gonna guess what I did! Did I…treat myself to a yummy desert? Did I…go out to dinner? Did I…indulge in some form of alcoholic drink? Did I…go hang out with friends? Nope, none of the above. I…went to the gym and had a kick ass workout then I came home, had my protein shake, my half a chicken breast and mixed veggie dinner and then chilled for the rest of the night. So, basically, I treated myself by being healthy…weird huh?

See, lately I’ve been stressing about stuff and have learned the true impact of emotional eating, eek. I’ve been veering super far off course from my eating plan lately and eating stuff I shouldn’t be for no reason other then I can, lame! So, when I got this awesome news instead of going and getting a cinnamon bun or some chocolate or whatever I decided to treat myself by being good to myself. I’m kinda hoping this will re-enforce to my brain and body that healthy eating is good and leaves me feeling good and unhealthy eating is bad and leaves me feeling bad…I’d give you feedback on if it’s working but the day after I woke up sick and am still sick today and when I’m sick it totally messes up my appetite so I’m not too sure yet…

My first day of training isn’t until June 12th so I have a bit more chillaxin time before entering the land of being a productive member of society lol. My shifts are great, Friday and Saturday I work 3p-9p, Sunday and Monday I work 7a-3p. Some people might be all ‘dude, you’re weekend is shot’ but I don’t care, I’d rather have the majority of Monday to Friday 9a-5p available so I can go to auditions – see? The priorities of the actor, lol. 🙂 and my dragon boat practices are Monday evenings so I’ll never have to miss.

Sure, this isn’t a forever kind of job, but that’s not what I was looking for, I was looking for a see-me-through-the-next-couple-years-while-I-make-a-name-for-myself-acting kind of job and for that this is perfect. 🙂

I’m glad I celebrated by going back to my eating plan and exercise plan that day, makes me feel good about the entire day, not just the getting-the-job part. Buuuuut the getting-the-job part was by far the best part of that day! lol 😀

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Can Knees Just Fall Off?

27 May

Holy crap my knees freakin huuuuuurt! I decided in honour of summer being officially here (in my head that is, I have no idea if the actual official first day of summer has already come and gone, I don’t really keep track of stuff like that lol) I would unlock my bike, drag it off the balcony, drive it to the bike store to get air in the tires and then go ride the seawall, wOOt! I have never ridden the seawall, I have lived here since September 2007 and I have never ridden the seawall, disgusting! and uh, yeah, I have had my bike here that entire time…*sheepish face*…although, in my defence, I have walked the entire seawall, I feel that should be taken in to account when I am being judged…just sayin…

This summer is about being more active, getting out there, exercising but also having fun, finding ways to be social while getting fit…basically an extension of last summer lol 😛 So out came the bike! Let me just say, I looooove my bike. It took me months to pick, I was not just gonna buy any ol thang, I wanted a sweet ride…which, admittedly, when I started the shopping experience was mostly about the colour lol *rolls eyes* I know, how like a girl right? 😉 In the end though I didn’t pick it based on colour, although the colour didn’t hurt (it’s blue, silver and black), I picked it based on what was a good fit for me, my activity level, what I was planning to use it for, ya know, all that important stuff, shrug.

My poor bike has been so neglected for so long though, lol, I haven’t ridden it in I don’t know how many years, eek! All that money spent and I barely use it, lame. I was considering selling it this year so I could buy a paddle for dragon boating instead of using the paddles at the club buuuuut I figured at least give biking a shot before selling her…yes, my bike is a her, deal with it. 😉 lol oh, and no, she doesn’t have a name, I’m not a complete freak, eesh.

Well, it was soooo much fun today! Such a great experience! I biked to the seabus and while waiting for the seabus started talking with another girl who had her bike with her, we were talking about biking trails, helmet vs non helmet wearing, all kinds of biking talk, who knew having a bike with you made you someone people were more willing to talk to? Weird. Well, we were getting along quite well so we decided to ride the seawall together. Normally I hate exercising with other people (unless it’s in a class, like my boxing, or training with the boating team) so part of me was a bit ‘aw man, now I won’t be able to listen to my music while biking, sigh’ but part of me was all ‘hey, someone to bike with, less chance of me getting on the wrong path now’ lol. I warned her that this was my first time biking in years and there was a good chance at some point I’d be exhausted and need to stop or at least slow down or possibly walk the bike for a bit, she was all cool with that and said she’d only been biking a short time too so she might have the same trouble as she hadn’t done the seawall yet – talk about a great match! What are the odds of that? 🙂

I am proud to say we didn’t have to stop at all! There are parts of the path you have to dismount and walk the bikes so we were off them then cause we had to be, and during one of those walking sections she needed to check her phone cause she was waiting for a call so we ended up pausing for a minute or so and well, ok, the view was amazing so once we paused to take pics…crap, ok, fine, we stopped a couple times I guess, damn! But we weren’t stopping due to exhaustion or being unable to go on, we stopped uber briefly twice and really, I don’t feel those pauses negatively impacted our results, so there! 😛 lol

While biking I have a tendency to just go, I stand on the pedals a decent amount to help absorb shock when going over bumps or curbs etc, it’s just reflex, it’s how I always used to bike. I think I’m gonna hafta be more careful with that from now on cause I am now regretting that, sigh. My knees! I feel so old complaining about them but seriously man, they hurt soooo badly! I’ve been going up and downstairs doing laundry and each time I have to get up from the chair, and then go on the stairs, and then sit again I want to cry. I have arthritis in my left knee from the injury I had all those years ago so I’m used to that one acting up and I sorta expected it would protest while I was biking but it didn’t so I went hard the entire time, didn’t really pamper my knees at all…guess the knees need pampering while biking, although how the heck I do that I have no idea!

I’m actually tempted to put a heating pad on my knees they hurt that much but I’m not sure if that will actually help…I know I am having trouble sleeping cause of the pain, hence my writing this post at 3:30am…and I’m kinda concerned cause I have plans tomorrow that involve a lot of hill walking and since just going down my hallway is painful and making me limp I’m not so sure how I’ll do on the hills, guess I’ll find out in the morning! lol

I know I am bitching, and yeah my knees do really hurt, but I think it was worth it. 🙂 I made a new friend (we swapped info and plan to go biking again), I got outdoor exercise (something I don’t get often since I hide from the sun a lot lol), I got to use my bike instead of neglecting it and I had fun. Really, what more could a person ask for from a Saturday? 😀

view of the seawall in one of the pedestrian only sections

 

pretty sunset

 

just one more awesome view from today

 

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Talk (Gym) Story

15 May

In Hawaii there is a slang called pidgin, to say ‘Talk Story’ means: to talk about something or chat. So, I have basterdized it a little for the use of my title today and I am gonna talk story about the gym…basically todays post is gonna be funny gym stories that I have accumulated over the past however many months. 🙂

They are all true, they all happened to me or at least in my viewing and they all had the end result of me rolling my eyes and laughing…sometimes while it was happening I would be more annoyed or irritated but afterwards that would always turn in to humour.  🙂 Gotta keep it light right?

(1) Back when I would use a cardio machine for 30 minutes at a time I would usually hop on to the eliptical machine, randomly pick one of the preset programs and go to town. I had chosen a program that was basically all high ramp work which means my ass and upper back thighs were being worked the most. The eliptical was at the end of a row of cardio machines and directly to the left were two leg weight machines that if a person were to use would put their eyes level with my ass…do you see where this is going?  😉 So there I am on my eliptical working my butt off and this guy sits down at one of those leg weight machines, at first he doesn’t do anything but I figured he’s taking a quick breather before starting that exercise so no biggy and I basically ignored him. But a little bit later it dawned on me that he’s still not using the machine, he’s just sitting there, what the hell is he doing? Risking life and limb (have you ever tried turning to look at something while going as fast as you can on an eliptical that is at a high ramp incline? it’s dangerous! lol) I turned slightly to look over at him and he is sitting there with his eyes staring at my ass with the same rapt attention a toddler gives the Telletubbies! What the hell?!?! Uh, ever hear of subtlety? He sat and oggled my ass the entire 30 minutes! I didn’t know if I should feel slightly dirty or flattered lol.

(2) I was in the free weight area and was using the 20lb dumbbells, I was in between sets so I had them resting on the bench I had claimed and was standing by the bench. Just as I went to go pick them back up this guy comes over, puts his hands on the dumbbells and says “women should never use over 8lb dumbbells” and he actually tried to take them away! I grabbed them and said “if I can lift them I can use them” and tugged them back, lol. I couldn’t believe it, how rude is that?! Not like he needed them, there were plenty of other 20lb dumbbells around so I guess he was doing it just to be a jerk? *raised eyebrow*

(3) The other week I was on the treadmill, just warming up in preparation for my interval run, I had my ear buds in but my music wasn’t turned on yet. There was a girl on the treadmill next to mine, she was going at a pace that could best be described as a stroll on a flat incline and talking on her phone. Now picture a valley girl voice for this: “yeah, so, I don’t get it, I go to the gym like all the time and I’m always doing cardio but I never lose any weight!” After saying that comment to whomever she was talking to on the phone she then picked up her Snickers chocolate bar and took a nice big bite! bahahahaha! walking super slow, while on the phone, while eating a chocolate bar…yeah, I wonder why you aren’t losing any weight…not! 😉

(4) I’m in the free weight area (I spend a lot of time there lol) and it was fairly busy so all three benches were being used (one by me) and many of the weight machines that are also in that room were in use. I am the only girl (as usual) and all the guys there that day were the big beefy guys. Then this kid comes in with his Grandfather, he is maybe 13 years old or so and has that rangy scrawny look boys have around that age. The Grandfather is trying to teach him proper form for when he is using the free weights so he tells the kid to grab some 5lb dumbbells and copy what he is doing, the kid gets all “what? I’m not using 5lb dumbbells, I’m stronger than that!” and grabs the freakin 20lb dumbbells. So Grandfather shows him a bicep curl and the kid goes to do the same and has to put the force of his entire body behind it so he can get that dumbbell lifted up to his shoulder, his entire body! lol Grandfather tries to explain it is too heavy but the kid looks at me and says “if she’s using 20lb dumbbells than so can I!”. I’m like wtf? I’m not using them for bicep curls moron, they are for my back muscles, eesh. So I smirked a bit but refrained from laughing…oh, I should point out I subtly paused my iPod so I could hear their convo cause I could tell this was gonna be good teehee. Then the Grandfather tries showing him some other moves and again the kid insists on using weights way too heavy so he’s looking like a fool but he thinks he’s looking awesome, he’s got this “I’m the man” attitude going on, too funny! Grandfather then takes him to the stretching/ab area and shows him how to sit on one of those huge exercise balls they use in yoga so that his body is braced/stabilized and then he does sit ups. The kid goes to do it and is trying to show off how awesome his abs are so he’s going super fast but not actually stabilizing at all so he’s rolling all over the place and I think his legs got a better workout then his abs. *rolls eyes* The entire time I, and all the guys working out, keep taking subtle glances over at this spectacle cause it’s just too funny to miss but at the same time nobody wants to get caught staring right? Well, Grandfather decides they are done and they go to leave, the kid walks past me then comes back, stands just to the side and behind me, faces the mirror, lifts his shirt with his left hand and with his right he rubs his abs and says “oh yeah” while nodding, then he goes strutting outta there like he’s king of the world! I couldn’t help it, I laughed right out loud, I tried to make it sound like a cough but I didn’t succeed all that well lol. The guys working out were all smirking or quietly chuckling but I was full out laughing, how could I not?!  😛

(5) This is another one where I was kind of annoyed but it’s still kinda flattering/funny. I was in the stretching/ab area of the weight room and shockingly enough working on my abs and then stretching, weird huh? lol. I had finished my mat work and had stood up with my feet together and I kept my hands on the floor (I’m kinda flexible, shrug), so basically, my butt is in the air, but whatever, it’s a good stretch! From that stretch I always put my legs wide, then pivot so I can do a deep lunge (I don’t know the actual name of the stretch…look at the image below…it’s like that except I take it a step further and my forearms are resting on the ground beside the foot that is in the forward position…) so I do that stretch for both sides and then kinda chill with my legs together and my hands resting on the ground before rolling back up to standing. For some reason, this one day I looked up while in the middle of these stretches and three guys all at one time whipped their heads around super fast cause I guess they had all been staring and they thought they were caught when I looked up! lol I didn’t realize anyone was watching me, I just decided to look up, lol, totally oblivious am I with some stuff. It kinda annoyed me cause I don’t oggle the guys when they are working out so I feel they shouldn’t oggle me when I am working out…buuuuut, it’s also kinda nice to know guys want to oggle you, lol. 😉

put the forearms resting on the ground beside the foot that is in front and that is the stretch I am talking about…it feels really good! 🙂

I have a couple more but this post is already long enough so maybe I’ll do a part two later on.  🙂

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It Will Hurt

14 May

I am thinking of turning this in to a poster to stick on my wall so I see it everyday and remind myself everyday of what is required of me to attain my goals.

Some days you don’t want the hurt, you don’t want to make the healthy decisions, you don’t want to take the time or sacrifice anything. Those are the days you need to push harder, reach farther, go faster, be stronger. Those are the days that test you, that test your limits, your commitment, your drive, your passion, your true wanting of your goal.

Anybody can say they want to lose weight, they want to get fit, they want to be thin, or strong, or pretty, or flexible…but the difference between those people who say they want it and those who truly want it is what you do on that day you feel your willpower is non-existent, when you are tired, sore, hungry, bored, wanting to go out and have more of a social life then you have been having.

What do you do? Do you still exercise? Do you still eat healthy? Or do you say you’ll get back on track tomorrow, do you give yourself permission to cheat? Slack on going to the gym? Talk yourself out of the actions needed to reach your goal and instead indulge in self-sabotaging habits that will actually knock you back a step?

You are already in pain, you have already hurt, you have already pushed yourself, you have already turned down extra treats, you have already made sacrifices…don’t take away from all that you have already done by doing something that will stop or even worse reverse some of the good you have accomplished.

Be strong! Find something to inspire you, something to remind you of all you have done and all you have left to do. Be the person you want to look up to, make yourself proud.

…geez, I sound like one of those self help gurus…the power of reading that poster I tell ya! lol 😛

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A Day Of Recovery

13 May

Dragon Boat season has been happening for 4 weeks now…hmm, I should clarify, for my team it’s been happening for 4 weeks now, other teams get on the water much sooner. I wish my team got on the water sooner but we’re not quite as competitive as some of the other teams, shrug, whatcha gonna do?

Anyways, we’ve been training for 4 weeks and yesterday was our first Race Regatta, The Spring Sprint! 😀 Any race day is a good race day in my opinion but yesterday was just perfect! Sun was shining but it wasn’t too hot, there were lots of people competing but not so many you got lost in the crowd, the atmosphere was happy and encouraging. That’s the thing about Dragon Boaters, on the water during a race you want to beat the other team no matter what, it is waaaaar! But as soon as the race is over everyone is friendly and nice and we all get along, shrug. It’s a weird phenomenon that I really enjoy.

So yesterday was all about getting up early, competing in races (three of them to be exact) and being stuck outside for approximately 8 hours straight. I’m all good with the getting up early part, and I love the competing part, but the being outside in sunlight for an extended period of time part I’m not so good with.

I’m a natural redhead, we are not meant to be in the sunlight for anything over, oh, say, 5 seconds at a time? You think I’m joking but I’m not. When I walk to the gym it takes me about 3 minutes, I consider being exposed to sunlight for the 3 minute walk there and the 3 minute walk home excessive, it’s just too much sun!

Friends laugh at me all the time and make comments about how I am a vampire but hey, come talk to me when we are in our 50’s and I still have good skin and you are all wrinkled and sun spotted and having to go to the doctors every week cause of yet another early warning sign of cancer appearing on your skin. You know your tan isn’t healthy and yet you do it? pffft. I’d rather guard my natural paleness the way a fat kid guards the last slice of cake at a birthday party then attempt to match everyone else in my age bracket by cooking my skin either in natural sunlight or in a tanning bed. *shudder*

How do I deal with having to be outside for such a long period of time? Long sleeves, and pants, and runners, and a heck of a lot of sunscreen on my neck, hands and face. What? You think I forget about my hands and neck? Ladies, that is where our skin starts showing its age fastest! You can cover up all sorts of skin flaws on your face with makeup but hands and necks? Much trickier! So take care of them now so they continue to look good later…that’s my motto anyways. 🙂  Sadly, I forgot my hat (rookie mistake! ack!) so my scalp got a bit burned where my hair part is, suckfest. That tends to happen once a year no matter how careful I am so hopefully this means I won’t burn it again later in the summer *crosses fingers*

Despite all my carefulness I still end up having to take a day of recovery the day after being outside for so long. I don’t know how people can be outside all day and then spend the next day doing all their normal day to day stuff. Being outside that long in the sun exhausts me! I always end up sleeping longer the next day, wanting to nap somewhere during the day, having no energy, less mental focus, I am just all worn out. I hate it. It’s like being in sunlight drains me…hmm, maybe I am some weird vampire hybrid, like Blade! That’d be kinda cool… 😉

So yeah, today I didn’t do much, slept in ridiculously late (even by my standards!), watched some tv, did some stuff online, resisted the urge to nap since I slept so late, waited till after sundown to go grocery shopping, did some more online stuff and am now blogging before going to bed. Ridiculously lazy day (again, even by my standards) but nothing could have gotten me out of my bed any earlier and I didn’t have the energy or the desire to do anything else all day. Heck, I even let my hair air dry instead of blow drying it, that’s how lazy I was! *hangs head in embarrassment*

By tomorrow I will be back to normal, so lazy but not this lazy lol which is good cause I have Dragon Boat training in the evening, gotta be on top of my game for that! 🙂

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The Long Walk

11 Apr

I walk. Not for exercise, although that is a nice side benny, I walk cause I am trying to save on gas usage in my suv (don’t ya love the irony of a mid-sized suv owner trying to be environmentally friendly? 😛 ), and cause I think having the ability to walk should never be taken for granted. In my old neighbourhood it wasn’t practical, or all that possible, to walk when doing errands cause everything was so far away but here, this neighbourhood, it’s like it was designed so people who live in the neighbourhood could get all their stuff done without ever having to go outside of walking distance. How great is that?

There are times when I have to drive to get my errands done, usually cause I will be carrying something really heavy or I have a massively short time limit to get everything done in but meh, once every now and then (and only when it’s for a legit reason) doesn’t seem soooo bad. Then I have days like today, where I end up driving cause of sheer laziness coupled with poor time management and well, more laziness lol. Hey, don’t judge, everyone has stupidly lazy days! I just happen to have the balls to admit it online…in my fairly anonymous blog…lol 😛

After I got home and was actually thinking about it I realized how dumb I am sometimes lol. I have walked in the rain, in the snow, when the ground is so slippery I was sure I was doomed to getting at least a sprained ankle, when the wind is so strong it actually pushes you back a bit, when it’s really late at night and the crazies/annoying drunk people are out an about…I’ve walked this neighbourhood while doing errands in every type of weather imaginable…well, except for nice weather, I moved here beginning of November so I’ve only experienced winter so far lol. But today, on a lovely spring day where it was warm with a mild breeze and I had the time and physical ability to walk to Safeway, did I walk? Nope. I drove. That whole entire 3 minute drive which is maybe a 10 minute walk? I’ve never actually timed it…that little walk seemed too long today for me to bother with. How lame is that? *rolls eyes*

After the gym and shower and protein shake I made the horrible mistake of sitting down, epic fail right there people! One should never sit down “just for a minute” after just getting outta the shower after being at the gym. Your body is all nice and loose and limber, you’re cozy from the shower, you’re feeling good about your exercising and that maybe you deserve a little rest…this is a recipes for disaster! Disaaaaaster! 

I, instead of getting presentable and going to Safeway, sat down, on a comfy chair, within reach of my laptop…do you see where this is going? I ended up going online and doing all kinds of stuff and then all of a sudden *bam!* it’s hours an hours later, I haven’t had dinner and I still need to go grocery shopping before coming home and doing laundry…isn’t my life just oh so exciting? *rolls eyes*

I almost broke one of the cardinal rules for people trying to follow a strict eating plan and went to Safeway without having had my dinner, oh geez, but never fear, least I didn’t wimp out on that lol. I made a quick dinner and then off I went…in my suv. Why the suv? The weather was still great, still nice and warm, I bet it would have been a lovely walk, buuuuut, I convinced myself the bags would be too heavy to carry all the way back (ya know, those whole freakin 7 blocks, oy!) and that I didn’t want to take too much time because I did still have all that laundry to do…I think I might of even had a third equally lame excuse in my head at the time which has since fled the confines of my brain, pretty much proving what a pathetic “reason” it was lol 😛

In the end, my grocery bags actually were heavy (yogurt was on sale so I got 2, and it was also my almond milk and meat purchasing trip) so it would have sucked to carry the bags back to the apartment, but not like I haven’t carried heavier ones, in worse weather, that same distance before…sigh.

So now, it’s 1:32am and I’m sitting here typing away, feeling a bit lazier then normal, all because I drove 7 blocks instead of walked it. If it wasn’t the time of night it is I’d go for a random walk just to make it up to myself but I am tryyyyyying to get back in to a normal sleep routine so I want to be in bed by 2am at the latest…guess I’ll hafta go for a walk tomorrow as well as have my cardio day at the gym to balance this all out. Ya know, I’m starting to think being lazy always comes back to bite ya in the ass! 😉

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