Tag Archives: hiking

A Dog’s Day

11 Jun

Today was so great! πŸ™‚

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cuteness

Cuteness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Chief

4 Jun

What did I do today? Oh, nothing much, just climbed a mountain…yup, re-read that, it’s ok if it takes a minute to sink in, it would take me a while to comprehend that about me also πŸ˜‰ lol

Today a friend and I went and climbed to the first peak of The Chief which is a mountain about an hour outside of Vancouver, it is overlooking the town of Squamish BC. There are three peaks to the mountain, all three can be climbed in one day if you so desire, I did not lol. Or rather my cardio and knees did not desire that. πŸ˜›

It’s a beautiful climb, hard, but beautiful.

If you want to read all the facts from the official website for the mountain feel free to click on the following linkΒ http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/stawamus-chief/

According to my Runtastic App (of which I am still using the free version but am seriously considering for the first time ever paying for an app and getting the full version) we went a total of 10.33km and it took 3:30:39, we burned 1105 calories and had a 33 minute break at the top to have a snack, a rest and enjoy the view…oh and get to feed the most adorable chipmunks, everybody say awwwww! lol

I took some pics during the hike so sit back and enjoy the prettiness!

Shannon Falls

Shannon Falls

Ok, so Shannon Falls looks way better in person (obviously) but at least I tried to get a picture of it lol

One of the warning signs

One of the warning signs

This is more funny than anything else lol Sucks somebody vandalized it but I found the caution sign amusing. This sign is partway up the trail, past where the people who just wanted to see the falls will be, the sign says “The trail is NOT a “walk in the park”.” then goes on to list all the things that could go wrong, talks about some dangerous aspects of the trail and gives a list of things you should take with you. I am not sure why it doesn’t also mention the wild animals you could encounter…perhaps they didn’t want to overly scare tourists?

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I really like pictures of water, I find them soothing.

 

 

The below pictures are of ladders that are attached to the rock face in two different sections because without them it’d be freakin hard to get up the mountain. I was impressed with how sturdy they are, no wobbling or loose parts. Quite a relief when you consider where the ladders are placed lol

Ladder number one

Ladder number one

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Ladder number two

You can just barely see that at the top of the second ladder my friend is starting to climb on a steep section, she looks kind of funny because she was using a chain that is attached to the rock face, you basically straddle the chain, grab on to it for dear life and use it while climbing (and descending) because the rock face is so slippery you can’t make it safely up or down without something to anchor yourself to. It is really easy to do and kinda fun. πŸ™‚ Those chains were set up in hmm, two sections? Maybe three, I can’t quite recall right now.

The next four pics are views from the first peak where my friend and I had a bit of a rest…

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And of course the day wouldn’t be complete if a cute animal didn’t make an appearance, this little guy and a friend kept darting in and out around where my friend and I were sitting. He was even brave enough to take some of my granola bar from my fingers. They were so cute I wished I could bring them home but of course I would never do that, they make out quite well up on the top of that peak getting food from most of the people that stop and have a snack, it’s like the mecca for little cute furry animals who can beg food from humans lol

I want one!

I want one!

This was the first time I got to use my water backpack and I really liked it. I sorta wish I’d bought one a little bigger but oh well. I’ll just have to be careful how I pack it when I go for large climbs. It held an apple, granola bar, energy gummies that I didn’t eat, sunscreen, the water bladder, ID, chapstick, phone, small package of kleenex…I think that’s about it, and it was packed. When I bought it it seemed large enough I’d be able to stuff a jacket in there but I’m just not sure I’ll be able to, I will have to see if there is some way to tuck the jacket under those stretchy ties on the front that will for sure secure the jacket and not let it slip out when I am climbing. I’ll figure it out eventually. πŸ™‚

The day was fairly awesome, healthy breakfast, climbing with a friend, home to chill. I was a lot slower than my friend and I felt bad she kept having to wait for me to catch up, that doesn’t often happen to me and I didn’t like being the slow one in the pair, sigh. I think it was because it was a much steeper incline than I am used to, I hike that distance on different trails in a much shorter amount of time but on those trails the inclines are steep but for a shorter distance which is easier on my knees. I’ve been babying my knees since I got home to try to make sure they don’t give me trouble tomorrow, I’ll just have to wait till tomorrow to see if my babying worked! lol

All in all I’m glad we went and yay for getting to check off climbing the Chief from my list of things to do! πŸ™‚

 

Insomnia Much?

20 Apr

I have not been sleeping well at all, ugh. Which is ridiculous cause sleeping is one of the things I do best! Well, after 3am it is lol I have always been a night owl so going to bed prior to 2am is a chancy thing, I will most likely toss and turn wondering why I am wasting time lying in bed when I could be doing countless other things. If I go to bed around 3am odds are decent I’ll fall asleep in a more acceptable length of time. However, going to bed at 3am is not a smart thing to do when you have to be up at 5:30am for work. sigh.

It’s not just last night though, it’s the past week, I just haven’t been sleeping well. Not only do I have a ridiculous time falling asleep, once I am asleep I’m not staying there, I wake up throughout the night and my dreams are weird, and not entertaining weird but disturbing weird…normally I like dreaming, I have vivid dreams that tell a story in a chronological order, it’s like watching tv that my mind makes up, it’s awesome! But not this past week, nope, just weird annoying dreams.

When the alarm goes off and I finally get up I don’t feel rested but I don’t particularly want to go back to sleep cause sleep just ain’t doin nuthin for me lol πŸ˜›

insomnia

I’m not really sure how to deal with this, so my approach to the problem has been to try to wear myself out so I will sleep better. Let me just say that so far, it isn’t working. 😦

Yesterday my dragon boat team had a fundraiser, friends and family could pay $10 and come dragon boating with members of the team, get a feel for it, have some fun on the water, see what it is all about. It went great! The team raised money, the people who came out had lots of fun, I invited a friend and her two daughters and they loved it! I am now considered even cooler than I already was in their ranking system, and hey, I didn’t even have to bribe them with chocolate! lol πŸ˜‰

I thought for sure being up early for that, then putting in a full shift at work would wear me out and I’d have a great sleep last night. Ha-bloody-ha!

That so didn’t happen! *pout*

I was super tired when I got home but could I sleep? Nope. Just lay there, couldn’t get comfy, tossed and turned much to the cats annoyance until I eventually drifted off only to be woken repeatedly through the night by absolutely nothing at all *groan* then the alarm goes off at 5:30am and I didn’t even bother with hitting snooze cause what is the point? I didn’t hit snooze! You probably don’t realize how big of a deal this is but let me explain, snooze and I, we have a complex relationship where snooze promises me ten more minutes of precious sleep so I can finish a dream but not be late for work and in exchange I don’t break the alarm. It may be a mildly threatening relationship where snooze cowers in fear of failing and then being beat, but hey, it works for us. πŸ˜‰

So now it is a little after 10pm, I am tired but not, I want to go to bed cause I have to be up early tomorrow for work and I want to make sure I am rested enough to go hiking after work buuuuut a big part of me is wondering why even bother going to bed when I know I’ll just lay there, jealous of the cat who instantly falls asleep as soon as his head touches a surface. The brat. πŸ˜›

 

Rest Days

19 Apr

I’m not sure how I feel about rest days. I know for muscle growth you need them, but generally you can have a rest day that isn’t really a rest day. That makes no sense to you I’m betting, what with you not being in my head an all lol

If you are working on building muscle it is easy to have a rest day because you just divvy up what days you work various muscle groups. So, Monday might be arms and shoulders, Tuesday Β legs, Wednesday back etc. You are still going daily but you are also giving certain muscle groups a rest.

A year or so ago when I was following an extreme workout regime given to me by a super fit friend I got one rest day a week, my week looked like this:

Day 1 – short cardio, arms and shoulders

Day 2 – cardio, core

Day 3 – short cardio, legs

Day 4 – cardio, core

Day 5 – short cardio, back

Day 6 – cardio, core

Day 7 – rest

I personally feel a rest day needs to be earned, and because I am super hard on myself I feel that until I am at the fitness level I want to be at, and am maintaining, I have not earned a rest day. Doesn’t mean I don’t have days I don’t exercise, but that is due to scheduling or sheer laziness, not because I have it marked down as a rest day lol.

rest day 3

This past Wednesday though I consciously took a rest day. The previous Sunday I went running, did a bunch of squats and some upper body weight work, Monday I went for a hike, Tuesday I had dragon boat practice. The run alone caused me some muscle pain, mostly in my legs, well, most likely the run combined with the squats lol, but whatever the cause, there was muscle pain. The hike on the Monday was not planned, I was supposed to be doing something else but it ended up as a hike (on a new trail, yay!) but that did nothing for my muscle pain, especially when I wasn’t content to just hike so I did interval work while hiking. By that I mean whenever there was a flat section I would either stop and do squats, change from walking to doing walking lunges, plank, do some push-ups or do calf presses (standing ones, I would find a curb or log to balance on). During the course of the hike I did each of those exercises three times, each time a set of 12, it made me feel the hike was a better workout for the inclusion of the extra work.

But yeah, so by Tuesday my legs were kinda pissed at me lol and the run I was going to take before practice did not happen. By the time Wednesday came around all I could think was my legs would never forgive me if I went running or hiking that day so I did nothing exercise-y. I did some house work but not enough I feel it can be counted as exercise lol

Thing is, while I am not adverse to building muscle, when I think about building muscle I think of my back, shoulders and arms, mostly because that is where I need it for dragon boating. I don’t really think of my legs, which means I don’t generally give them a day off. The days I decide to not go running or hiking are usually days my knee is acting up, so I give the knee a break but that break is in no way meant as a rest day for my leg muscles, shrug.

I count my runs and my hikes as cardio, and I’m sorry but who gets a rest day from cardio? Nobody!…Least, I don’t think we are supposed to, are we? Β But this past week made me realize that I am dummy and sure I am getting cardio when I go hiking or running but I am also building strength in my legs which means I am working the muscles, doh! Sooooo now I am wondering if I should be spacing my runs and hikes so I don’t do them every day, or at least consecutive days because I need to give the leg muscles a rest between workouts…

Why oh why do there have to be so many questions when it comes to working out?? sigh.

I think for now I’ll just follow what my body says, if the legs are hurting to the point the hike won’t feel good but will just be painful I won’t hike, but if I think the hike will stretch the muscles out and make them feel good well, bring it on! lol πŸ˜‰

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.

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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. πŸ™‚

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! πŸ˜‰ 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! πŸ˜‰ 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. Β I don’t mind doing it again though, it is a really nice easy hike, a good one to start the season with. πŸ™‚ 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?

A Horrible Run

14 Mar

I’ve probably said it a thousand times on this blog but…I am NOT a runner! Yes ok, I did sign up to participate in the BMO Run but I’m pretty sure it is going to kill me, sigh. πŸ˜›

So now I’m in “training”…

The first run I did two weeks ago went greeeeat! I couldn’t believe it! Maybe I really could do this running thing! I did that first run aiming to hopefully reach 5km with no time limit. I ran almost 7km in 58 minutes which I know isn’t anything approaching a time to be proud of but hey, I managed to go farther than I thought I could and that is the part I was focusing on. During that run I had multiple “oh-my-god-I’m-really-doing-this” moments, where I was so shocked and excited with how well I was doing compared to how I thought I would be doing that I actually loved that run. I thought I had an inkling about how people seem to get addicted to this running thing.

Then there was my run this past Monday…

Oh my gawd, could it have been any worse? No, no I really don’t think it could have been. I had barely gone a block and I wanted to quit. My thighs hurt, I was breathing hard, I was so not enjoying myself. Ugh. Plus, I was all “what the hell? I got farther than this last time without feeling like I was going to die, what happened???” It was disastrous! I did a measly 5.06km and it took me 46 minutes! I might as well have been going backwards! So embarrassing. I quick walked a good chunk of it, head literally hanging in shame as others ran past me, sigh.

kill me

I have some vague ideas about why the second run was oh-so-much worse than the first but I can’t decide if they are legit reasons or excuses…

The lead up to each of the runs couldn’t have been farther apart if I’d tried. Run #1 I was at home relaxing, had a perfectly balanced meal (protein, carb, healthy fat), nothing of import happened that day, weather was clear and I ran at night. Run #2 I was up at 5:20am for work, at the time of my run I hadn’t eaten in 5-6 hours, what I had eaten earlier that day was not a perfectly balanced meal at all, it was super windy, I ran evening-ish and ten minutes before my shift ended a resident fell smashing her head open on the floor and yours truly was the one who attended her while waiting for paramedics ( blood, blood everywhere, ugh).

Also, for some reason that day what I wanted more than anything was to go for a hike, to wander the wilderness, go off trail for a while, just be in nature (who am I??). I wanted the peace of being away from people, from expectations, from the world…I wanted away from everything, so my only focus was on where I was putting my next step, where I could breath deep and only smell nature not people or exhaust fumes…seriously, who am I now? I’m such a city girl that this yearning for nature is so not like me! lol But there ya have it, if it hadn’t been too late in the day I would have strapped on boots and gone hiking. Wouldn’t have counted as training for my run but it would have appeased my soul…and don’t I sound so dramatic! lol πŸ˜›

Hiking is such a great de-stresser and I think what I wanted most was to scrub the sound of that resident’s head smashing in to the floor out of my memory…seriously, such a noise! I’ve never heard a sound like that before and would very much like to never hear it again.

Sometimes I wonder about the damage this job is doing to my psyche, sigh…

Anyways!

The second run, it was horrible taken to a new level! I have no idea if this is normal for people who are Β starting out in running, maybe everyone who runs has good and bad runs? Man I hope this is normal, otherwise I was right and I am not meant to run and I will die a horrible sweaty red faced panting death the day of the BMO Run, and worse than all that I’ll be last! I don’t wanna be last *pout*

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. Β 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! πŸ˜‰

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? πŸ™‚

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

A Lovely Mountain Day

6 Feb

I spent a chunk of my afternoon up on a mountain today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. πŸ™‚ This may not seem odd but anyone who knows me knows I don’t like being outside during the winter, it’s cold, and there is snow and ice, and it’s cold! Yes, I know, I am a failureΒ as a Canadian *rolls eyes* πŸ˜›

I decided to go snowshoeing today, yay! It was zero degrees Celsius, which is, um…gimme a sec, I gotta google…it’s 32F…so nice n warm and perfect for spending outside. πŸ˜€

We haven’t had a lot of snow this winter (yes, I’m in that part of Canada lol) so I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for the trails to get snowy enough to make it worth my while and decided today was a good day to try em out.

There was snow, and a decent amount of it, but none of it fresh and none of it even remotely powdery, which, if you snowshoe you know is the most fun type of snow to trek through. Todays snow was all packed down, partially icy because the snow keeps melting during the day then freezing overnight – vicious loop that.

For part of the trail my snowshoes looked liked this…

2014-02-06 14.59.31yup, that’s right, they were being carried not worn cause the snow was just that packed down that there was no point putting them on my feet, sigh. I felt like an idiot carrying them and was really wishing I’d left them in my suv but obviously I wasn’t going to go all the way back to my suv to put them in the trunk so in my hands they stayed.

Until…

2014-02-06 15.23.23

 

I finally got to put them on! Yay! πŸ˜€

And hey, don’t judge the pants! They are super warm, fit well and my friend sold them to me for a measly $60, I heart those pants!…even if in this pic they do make my legs look huuuuuge lol

snow...

snow…

Me...

Me…the most unattractive cold person ever, sigh.

more snow...

more snow…

omg, me without makeup, on the internet, ack!

omg, me without makeup, on the internet, ack!

Do you see the damage to my toque? The loose threads that make it look old and worn? Well, lemme tell ya the story of that damage. This toque is brand new, this is only the third time I have gotten to wear it and I take good care of my stuff. So how did it get to look like this? The cat. *glares at the fur ball* I came home from work and discovered my toque at the base of his scratching post, it normally hangs on a hook on the wall by my front door. So he got it off the hook, brought it through the kitchen, in to the living room, killed it, then dumped the carcass somewhere I was sure to find it. The sadist. I’m trying to figure out how to fix or hide the damage but don’t know how…so right now, if you are keeping score, it is Cat-1, Human-0.

I didn’t get to go all the way to the top of the mountain due to timing issues. I got up there a bit later then planned which would’ve been alright except I was going on a trail I haven’t gone on before and accidentally went on the wrong trail to start with, oops! In my defence, there are two trail entrances, fairly close to each other, the first trail entrance turned out to be the wrong trail but the other trail entrance is hidden from site when at the first trail entrance so I thought there was only one trail…does that make sense? lol

Anyways! I went on the first, incorrect trail, and fairly quickly thought I was gonna die. It was super icy, lots of rocks, not a lot of snow, steep decline the entire way and of course the rocks were covered in ice so every part that had some serious decline trekking to do left me feeling I was facing certain doom. I don’t do awesome on ice, thanks to my stupid knee, and I didn’t even have my hands free thanks to having to carry my snowshoes. The trail was seeming like one super bad idea. I didn’t get all that far in to it when I decided screw it and I turned back. I felt like a bit of a failure but figured better safe than sorry. Since I thought that was the path I was supposed to be using I was deciding how I was going to get my exercise for the day since snowshoeing obviously wasn’t going to work out but when I got back to the start of the trail I noticed some people seemingly pop out of nowhere on my left side who had snowshoes. Being the nosy person I am I went to investigate and found the real trail, yay! and phew! lol

The second, and correct trail was way better because (1) it had snow (2) it was meant for snowshoeing (3) it was uphill and (4) way less icy patches.

Oh, and can I say people who take part in outdoor winter sports, super friendly! Every person I passed on the trail (by passed I mean they were going the opposite direction as I not I was faster than them and scooting around them) said hi, or asked how I was doing, a couple people stopped and we chatted a bit. Messed up my timing (I was tracking my distance and speed) and also shortened the length of time I was active but I don’t mind. People look out for each other, and that’s nice. This one lady checked to see if I was going up the mountain alone, I said yes so she gave me a recap of what I was in for (she was on her way down), reassured me about how many other people she had seen, where there were some rough patches, stuff like that. Nice lady. πŸ™‚ I notice the same thing when I am hiking in the summer, people say hi as you pass on the trail, sometimes stop and chat, things like that. Maybe it’s all that sunshine people are getting, makes them friendlier lol

 

8km, 2hrs

19 Sep

I did a hike yesterday that I oh so enjoyed! I wish I had taken some pictures of the beautiful scenery for here but I was using this app called Runtastic to track my hike and started with less then half my phone battery life left and I had doubt that the battery would last if I also took pics lol. Next time I will make sure the phone is fully charged, promise! πŸ™‚

I was soooo excited for this hike, had been wanting to do it since before I went to Los Angeles but I just never had the time…or thought I didn’t!

All the Provincial Park info said the 8km hike that I was planning would have a total time of 4 hours. Now, I don’t know how they calculated the time it would take, I assume that takes in to account terrain, averages from other hikers and a bunch of other stuff I don’t generally think about lol. I took the Park’s information as fact and that is why I hadn’t gotten around to doing this hike yet because I had to make sure I had minimum 4 hours available and that I started early enough in the day I wasn’t risking getting caught in the woods after dark.

Now, you may be thinking I am being overly dramatic about being in the woods when it is dark because how much wilderness could it possibly be? Lemme tell ya, this is Canada, there is a lot of wilderness and the head of the trail is full of info for keeping the bears etc away and all the gear you are supposed to take with you “just in case”…I took almost none of the gear cause that’s just how I roll πŸ˜‰ lol I took two bottles of water, a Clif Bar, ID, chapstick, sunscreen…that’s about it. I mean come on, how much do you really need to survive for 4 hours? Not that much! And if I was in there for longer then the 4 hours I was most likely in some sort of trouble and that extra gear well, would be helpful but I’d be holding out for a rescue team lol πŸ˜›

The trail started off flat and easy then I took a turn that leads to a higher intensity trail…who wants easy? Pfft! Not I! πŸ˜› The majority of my hike was spent alternating between steep inclines and windy smaller inclines…if that makes any sense? I lost the trail in a minor way once or twice and in a serious way only once. For me that is pretty good because my sense of direction is generally sucky and not like there are that many markers in the forest lol trees all look the same!

Sad to say I encountered no wildlife…although, since I had none of the gear meant to help me in animal scenarios I guess that’s a good thing? lol Less interesting but good. πŸ™‚

During the 7th km I tripped and scraped up my right knee and left hand, sigh. My right knee now looks like it belongs to a 12 year old tomboy, soooo not attractive! Thank goodness my body clots well lol The knee itself isn’t as bruised as I thought it would be but I’m in that unfortunate phase of healing where pants hurt cause of the friction but wearing a dress or skirt means showing off an ugly knee and having to repeatedly explain what happened. I’m not happy with either of those options but not much I can do about it *rolls eyes*

Left side is in the car right after the hike. Right side is the day after. And yes, I am just that pale! :P

Left side is in the car right after the hike. Right side is the day after. And yes, I am just that pale! πŸ˜›

Back to the timing of the hike, like I had mentioned above, all official information I had for this hike said it would take 4 hours. That seemed like a long time for 8km but I figured if the terrain was hard enough that could make sense, right?

Well here is a picture of my results from my Runtastic App…

Screenshot of my Runtastic App

Screenshot of my Runtastic App

I did 8.62km in 1 hour and 57 minutes…a much more respectable time but not at all what I expected! Sooooo, perhaps the people who came up with the timing for the hike went along the trail backwards? How else could I cut the time in half? I double checked the info at the head of the trail, thinking maybe I read the time needed to complete the hike incorrectly but I didn’t, it really said 4 hours. I just don’t get it…My dad suggested most people take the trail at a slower pace and aren’t zipping along trying to be the fastest to complete the trail lol I pointed out I wasn’t trying to be the fastest, just get a good workout (which I did)…and I suppose other people might use the trail for a more social outing but I don’t think so. The easy part of the trail sure! I saw people there with dogs, walking at a slower pace while talking with whomever they were with but the harder trail? I saw one other person on it the entire time and she was like me, hiking gear, obviously working out, not lingering anywhere…I guess this will be one of those things I remain confused about but hey, who doesn’t like having some mystery in their life? πŸ˜‰ lol

All in all I really enjoyed the hike, am very glad I finally got around to doing it. Now that I know it only takes two hours I have hope I will be able to hike it again before we lose our nice weather. I won’t hike it in the winter because parts of the trail were already partially washed out when I went yesterday from the rain we had earlier in the week. I had a couple times I detoured around the trail to avoid walking through water…wet feet is so not a thing I enjoy πŸ˜›

Vacation!

29 Aug

I went on vacation *happy dance* I went on vacation *butt wiggle* I went on vacation! *huge grin*

…and now I’m back, sigh.

It’s not that I don’t like my life, I like my friends, my cat, my job, my suv, my city, my weather patterns, my currency and lots of other things buuuuuuut I wish I could have stayed *bigger sigh*

I was in Los Angeles and had a greeeeeat time! I was hanging out with my friend KG for ten days and the only way it could have been better was if I could have smuggled my cat in to the country with me and stayed…well, been employed there and had my suv and stayed…not that I am demanding or anything lol

Instead of blathering on about things I did I figure I’ll just show you some pics instead sooooo prepare for the modern day vacation picture slide show…

Ready?

Here goes! πŸ˜€

German Pub = German Beer = yummm!

German Pub = German Beer = yummm!

La Brea Tar Pits

La Brea Tar Pits

omg I got to ride in that!!

omg I got to ride in that!!

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Memorial for Tot from The Wizard of Oz (Hollywood Forever Cemetery)

Memorial for Toto from The Wizard of Oz (Hollywood Forever Cemetery)

One of the many peacocks that roam the cemetery

One of the many peacocks that roam the cemetery

One of my fave ever statues - did not expect to find it in a cemetery!

One of my fave ever statues – did not expect to find it in a cemetery!

This is where you find the stars on the ground and the hand and foot prints in cement

This is where you find the stars on the ground and the hand and foot prints in cement

omgomgomg Sylvester Stallone put his hands there! Right there! Which means so did I! lol

omgomgomg Sylvester Stallone put his hands there! Right there! Which means so did I! lol

Steel Panther concert at The House of Blues

Steel Panther concert at The House of Blues

The Queen Mary (haunted ship) in Santa Monica

The Queen Mary (haunted ship) in Santa Monica

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier

Bubba Gump's at Santa Monica Pier - we got to keep our light up glasses!

Bubba Gump’s at Santa Monica Pier – we got to keep our light up glasses!

Hiked to get a better picture

Hiked to get a better picture

We don't have trees like this where I live hence the picture lol

We don’t have trees like this where I live hence the picture lol

Hiking back from the Hollywood sign a coyote decided to pop onto the trail and lead us back. He's hard to see but he's there!

Hiking back from the Hollywood sign a coyote decided to pop onto the trail and lead us back. He’s hard to see but he’s there!

There is sand, I will write in it, easy as that :)

There is sand, I will write in it, easy as that πŸ™‚

Obviously I have pictures with my friends and myself in them but since I don’t put images of myself or my friends on this blog I couldn’t put them up. Which is a tad sad cause I have one of me battling (and winning!) with Darth Vader, and one of my hands in Sylvester Stallone’s hand prints and lots others but these will have to do. πŸ™‚

I made a whole bunch of new friends when in LA and I miss getting to hang with them. Luckily it is the era of social networking so I have them on facebook and *crossing fingers* I will get to see them again before they forget who I am! lol πŸ˜›