Week 2 – off to a not-quite-stellar start

Oh, that Happy Bunny…

Yesterday I decided to get a jump start on my workout schedule for the week. I did exercise on Saturday, but that was a low intensity workout and I figured it could count as an active rest day. I am supposed to check in with Lindsey every Friday with my workout log for the week, so it just works out better for me to start my week on Sunday and finish on Thursday.

My first workout of the week was Rounds – as in how many rounds of this circuit can you do in 20 minutes – followed by Steady State Cardio and Abs. The Rounds Circuit included jumping rope again. Which I did 5 x 100 of. My legs were shaky when I finished. I started out my cardio nice and slow, until I felt like my legs were steady again.

After my workout yesterday I immediately downed a glass of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai protein drink. Then after a shower had an Amy’s Kitchen Burrito. Then I puttered around til Husband got home, ran out to Canadian Tire (for a new set of dumbbells) and then got groceries. Then came home and made supper. By the time I sat down to supper I was feeling pretty tired and I thought: I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Unfortunately, an hour later my legs were killing me. Not that good you’ve-worked-your-muscles-hard feeling either. More that stop-all-that-jumping-and-running-around-nonsense-or-your-ankles-and-knees-are-going-on-strike feeling. I was even too tired to play my piano last night; I just curled up with a book until bed time.

I was feeling not too bad today. Legs were a little fatigued, but nothing too terrible. Then I got on the treadmill to do my cardio intervals and I knew right away it was not going to be a good day, even backing off on the intensity. Sometimes it takes me a good 15-20 minutes to get warmed up, so I decided I would get through 5 of my intervals and see how I felt…And how I felt was: I’m done.  So it was a short workout today. Hopefully things will be feeling better tomorrow.

Eating was not too bad though.

I scarfed back breakfast before thinking to take a picture, but I had:

Made with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze, and sweetened with a bit of Maple Syrup. And coffee of course.

Around mid morning I had:

I was totally uninspired when trying to come up with meal plans and a grocery list this weekend, so lunch this week will be courtesy of Amy's Kitchen. Today was a burrito, with a side of raw veggies.

These pictures are from last night because I knew we’d be having leftovers tonight.

Taco filling – extra lean ground sirloin with onion, orange bell pepper, jalapenos, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin and coriander:

A quick salad of bagged lettuce mix, topped with some shredded cabbage and carrots and Renee’s Cucumber Dill Dressing.

Then tacos – on PC Blue Menu Whole Grain Jalapeno and Corn Tortillas.

There’s a generous blob of refried beans on the bottom, a little bit of the hamburger mixture, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and piquante sauce.

So that was dinner last night. Tonight was pretty much the same except by the time I finished my cardio intervals I just wanted to sit down so I was too lazy to make the salad. At least I had a big pile of veggies with my lunch.

After supper I felt like I wanted something else but couldn’t figure out what. I actually rejected chocolate and cookies – shocker – because I knew that wasn’t it. I finally settled on:

Which hit the spot.

Lastly, random cute picture from last Thursday – here’s Frank all ready for a game of make-the-bed.

Not so cute – the reason I was making the bed which was coming home from work to find that some feline-or-other had thrown up a hairball on my pretty white and blue quilt.

Even less cute, when I went into the bedroom after supper tonight to find out that someone had done it again. But at least Frank will get another game of make-the-bed.

Week 1 Down

First week back to work after the holidays, first week on the new workout plan from online fitness coach Lindsey.

To recap, this was my week:

Monday – Pulse Pyramid + Steady State Cardio + Abs. The Pulse Pyramid is made up of 5 different exercises. You do exercise #1 for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds, then do exercises #1 + #2 for 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds and so on until you work your way up to all five exercises. Then you start taking an exercise away each time, until you work your way back down to one. You count your total reps of all exercises.

The pulse pyramid took about 20 minutes, then I did 25 minutes on the treadmill and my Ab exercises – Single leg extension, side plank, plank.

Unfortunately, I kept messing up on my counting. I’d be counting along 50, 51, 52…36, 37, 38…Wait a minute…something’s not right here…

Tuesday – Cardio Intervals. Very similar the intervals I had been doing, though definitely a bit more challenging. Where I had been doing run/walk, these intervals are sprint/walk/build up (ie. go faster in preparation for your next running interval). Also, a longer duration. I was feeling great though, after a couple of weeks of rest. So of course I decided I could go faster…which I did for a couple of intervals and then had to slow right back down. I ended up with a couple of run/walk/walk intervals in there.

We’ll just call that testing my boundaries, and consider the lesson learned, shall we?

Wednesday – Supersets followed by Steady State Cardio. I was supposed to do Abs, but got carried away with my walk on the treadmill and ran out of time. Oops.

Thurday – Cardio Intervals + Abs. Less rested, not feeling quite so easy today. But this time I kept my paces steady. Did my Abs to make up for skipping on Wednesday.

Friday – Timed Circuit + Steady State Cardio + Abs. I had a circuit of 4 exercises, and had to do 4 rounds as fast as I could. This involved jumping rope 100 times. The first time I actually got up to 97 without missing a beat. I was pretty proud of that since it’s something I hardly ever do. The next 3 did not go quite as well, and I did manage to whip myself on the butt quite hard a couple of times; I almost expected it to leave a welt. Also, burpees. I really suck at burpees. I was laughing by the end as I was almost falling over trying to do the last few. I don’t imagine that did much for my time.

I really had to force myself to get on the treadmill after the timed circuits though. I felt about ready to collapse in a heap. But I told myself I’d do 20 minutes. About 17 minutes in, I got my second wind and ended up doing 40 minutes instead. And then the final Abs session.

Whew! I made it.

Saturday – Just for the heck of it, because I have a couple of new DVDs that I want to try out – Ellen Barrett’s Fusion Flow. The back of the DVD describes Fusion Flow as a peaceful workout that “feels like a warm embrace.” Some of it was very relaxing, but there were a couple of challenging segments in there too. But overall, I’d say an enjoyable workout.

There was no – or very little food blogging last week. Part of it was no real grocery shopping or meal planning, part of it was getting back into the swing of the work week, and part of it was not wanting to spend time on blogging due to this…

I had planned to get back on track with things this week, but here it is almost 1:30 on Sunday and I have yet to get out to buy groceries because I have not had access to the car (one of the down sides of being a one car family).

Husband went out computer gaming at a friend’s house yesterday afternoon. I woke up this morning to find that he had not come home. Turns out there was a fire up the street from the friends’ apartment and Husband has not been able to get the car out because every thing is blocked off. Hopefully he’ll make it home sometime to day, and hopefully in time for me to get out and buy some groceries.

Edit: Husband got home around 2:20, safe and sound. It was an apartment building that caught fire, no fatalities but 5 people lost their homes.

Mid-Week Check In

Here we are half way through the week already! I have to say, for being the first week back to work after two weeks of holidays, it’s gone by pretty fast.

So far I am 3/3 with my workouts for the week and I’m feeling good.

The weather has been warm – relatively speaking – hovering around 0 – 2 degrees Celsius most days. I’m loving it!

And I’ve managed to fit in some piano time every day.

I call that a successful week so far.

Tonight was weights, followed by Steady State Cardio. Supper was in the Slow Cooker, so I told Husband he could eat whenever he wanted and came downstairs to do my thing.

Since it was the first time doing the weight workout, it took me a little while to get situated, and then I was having such a good time walking on the treadmill, singing along to my tunes (very badly), I decided to walk for 15 minutes longer than I had planned.

Then I realized I had forgotten that I still had Abs to do. I decided I’d better leave that for tomorrow.

When I went upstairs, sure enough, Husband had not eaten and he was starving. Don’t know why he does that when the food is sitting there, all ready to be eaten. It’s not like he even sat down and ate with me – he was online playing a game and had to rush back to his computer. Silly Husband.

Anyway, dinner was our recently discovered favorite: Chicken & Lentils. We had some Naan on the side.

I added a little dollop of sour cream on top, since we have some in the fridge. So yummy!

And now it is piano time, so I leave you with today’s thought from Happy Bunny (Sister gave me a calendar for Christmas)…

What can I say? It makes me chuckle.

Results of Fit Chick Express Holiday Challenge

It occurred to me that I never really posted my results for the Fit Chick Express Holiday Challenge. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, workouts sort of tapered off at the end of the month, but I did maintain the same weight and according to my tape measure I actually did shrink a teeny bit.

At first I was thinking I must be messing up in my measuring, but I’ve been thinking that I can see more definition in my upper arms, so it makes sense that I must have lost some fat there. And if I lost some there, I could have lost in other places, no? I won’t list all of the measurements, but I just wanted to mention it because it certainly feels like a success. I’m sure that at some point in the future I’ll be joining another one of Angie’s challenges!

Food Blog?

We didn’t do a real grocery shop or meal planning last weekend, due to the snow storm, and I’ve had other things to catch up on so I haven’t got back into the food blogging yet. But I thought I would share a couple of recent meals with you.

On New Year’s Day, we got together with a group of friends for a Chinese Potluck. Normally you’d think you would take one dish to a potluck, but Husband tends to get a little excited over picking recipes so we ended up making four things.

One of the dishes that we made was completely gone by the end of the night, but there were leftovers from the rest that gave Husband and I a couple more meals.

Onion Pancakes with Chicken & Veggie Stir-Fry

Spring Onion Pancakes was to be on the appetizer menu of a favorite Chinese restaurant we used to go to. We came across the recipe while flipping through our collection of Chinese Cookbooks and decided to give it a go. They turned out to be quite tasty, and we came home with leftover batter for dinner the next night!

The veggies can be blamed on me; I often find there is a lack of vegetable dishes at potlucks, and if we were having Chinese I wanted to make sure I had stir-fried veggies. We basically chopped up a bunch of veggies, put them in containers and them them with us, along with our wok and a Black Bean Garlic sauce. It did turn out to be the only veggie dish, but we still came home with enough chopped veggies for two more meals. We added chicken and there was dinner.

Hot & Sour Soup and More Stir-Fry

Husband can’t do Chinese without his soup., so we took a long a big pot of Hot & Sour Soup; I think he made extra on purpose so we could have leftovers.

The second night, we again added chicken and this time chopped up a red bell pepper as well, as there weren’t quite enough veggies left.

Husband Cooks Dinner!

Tonight, discussing dinner on the way home, Husband said he was hungry. I knew I wanted to exercise, and cupboards are still a bit bare, so I suggested he could make himself some soup and I could find something to eat when I finished exercising.

Husband said that was silly, he’d make enough soup for me. I said I thought he was hungry, but he said he could wait. So I did my exercise thing, hopped in the shower, and came out to dinner – all ready to be eaten.

I’m thinking we should make this a regular weekly thing.

And Treats

Last but not least, we decided it was time to try out our Anniversary gift from my Sister.

Neat, hey? I used half milk and half Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze, since I have an iffy relationship with milk. I wasn’t sure how well it would froth up with the almond milk, but it worked like a charm!

Perfect treat on chilly evening. Thanks sis!

Time to get started

Vacation has been fun, but now it’s time to get back to the normal routine.

First, I owe you my usual month end review.

Good-bye December…

My final workout of 2009 – a walk in the snow with my Mom.

On the way back, we met a group in a horse drawn sleigh.

The Final Tally

Dec 26: Walk in the woods with my mom[40 mins]
Dec ??: The FIRM Hard Core Fusion
Dec 19: Gentla Hatha Yoga #1 + Workout A x2[40 mins]
Dec 17: Burn & Firm Pilates DVD[45 mins]
Dec 15: Treadmill walk/run[30mins]
Dec 14: Workout B x3[30 mins]
Dec 13: Treadmill walk/run[30 mins]
Dec 12: Workout A x2[25 mins]
Dec 10: Treadmill walk/run[40 mins]
Dec 09: Workout B x3 + Treadmill walk[40 mins]
Dec 08: Treadmill walk/run[40 mins]
Dec 07: Workout A x3[30 mins]
Dec 05: Workout B x2[15 mins]
Dec 04: Treadmill walk/run[32 mins]
Dec 02: Workout A x2[20 mins]

Yeah, so things kinda went downhill at the end of the month. I don’t feel bad about taking the time off though and I’m ready to start January’s Challenge!

This Month’s Plan

I have signed up for a month of online coaching with Lindsey at Lean Bodies Health and Fitness. I had been in touch with Lindsey a couple of weeks ago, but then with the busy holiday season I kept forgetting to get back to her and confirm until this weekend. She was kind enough to put together a program for me right away so that I could get started.

I did my first workout on the plan today after work, and I would say it’s going to be an interesting month!

I’m also archiving my weigh-ins again (see previous post) – time for another clean slate.

And now, I’m off. That piano is still calling my name.  :)

2009 Weigh Ins

Time to archive the weigh-ins again.

I have a bit of a gap from being away over the holidays. But I did weigh in on Jan 1st. Dec 31st is our wedding anniversary (this was 8 years) and we always go out to our favorite Thai restaurant (where we had our wedding) for an anniversary/New Year's Eve dinner with our friends. Considering that, and the fact that I've been pretty much eating whatever I feel like and not exercising for the past couple of weeks, I feel like I came through the holidays fairly well.

That being said, I'm not too pleased with the 5 lb gain over the past year. I really need to do something about this trend. The big 4-0 birthday is coming up, and it's not going to get any easier.

With that in mind, I logged into the online calorie tracker I had been using during November and set a goal to lose 12 lb by the end of April. I've done this sort of thing before, of course, but I'm not going to get anywhere if I don't try.

So, here I go again...

2010
Jan 01: 151.2

2009
Dec 18: 150.1
Dec 11: 151.5
Dec 05: 150.5
Nov 27: 148.8
Nov 20: 150.4
Nov 13: 149.0
Nov 06: 150.3
Oct 30: 150.1
Oct 23: 148.5
Oct 16: 150.4
Oct 08: 148.7
Oct 02: 150.9
Sept 25: 149.4
Sept 18: 149.7
Sept 11: 151.4
Sept 04: 149.7
Aug 28: 150.4
Aug 21: 148.7
Aug 14: 149.7
Aug 07: 151.4
July 31: 149.5
July 23: 150.2
July 17: 150.3
July 10: 150.0
July 03: 150.4
June 26: 148.7
June 19: 148.5
June 12: 148.8
June 05: 148.6
May 29: 147.5
May 22: 148.5
May 15: 148.9
May 08: 148.6
May 01: 149.6
Apr 03: 147.9
Mar 27: 147.1
Mar 20: 147.9
Mar 13: 145.9
Mar 06: 145.6
Feb 27: 146.0
Feb 20: 145.8
Feb 13: 145.9
Feb 06: 145.4
Jan 30: 145.1
Jan 23: 145.9
Jan 16: 146.5
Jan 09: 146.5

2008
Start Weight:
Aug 01: 145.1

The Musical Conclusion – Or Perhaps I Should Say the New Beginning

When last I posted, I was getting ready to head home to Nova Scotia for the Holidays. Of course I was looking forward to visiting with family, but I was also kind of excited because I would finally get to meet my new piano!

We actually had a bit of a rough ferry crossing on the way over – it was very windy. Normally I am quite happy to sit and read for the 3 hour crossing but for the first time I found I couldn’t settle down to that. But, we arrived in one piece and hit the road for Greenwood.

We made a quick stop in Middleton at Husband’s family home, then continued on to my parent’s house for hugs and greetings and lunch and my first look at the Digital Piano. Or the box anyway.

There it is; the new piano, sitting right next to the old.

We had a lot of fun fitting that box into our little VW Rabbit for the trip home, let me tell you. I really should have taken a picture, but Husband was seeming a little cranky about the whole thing so I didn’t want to push my luck. It did fit, but let’s just say it was a very cozy car ride.

We came home on Sunday, Dec. 27, and my [NS] sister came over to Saint John the next day to spend New Year’s with us. Somehow we didn’t accomplish much during our visit, other than a lot of relaxing. I did make a start on clearing space and reorganizing things in the basement, but that was about it.

We dropped Sister off for the 9 am ferry yesterday. It was starting to snow a bit, so on the way home we made a stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things since the forecast was saying we were in for a lot of snow.

Then, finally, I got back to work on reorganizing the basement and Husband helped me to put the piano together. Actually, he did most of the putting together, I was mainly there to hold things.

The cats really enjoyed the box that the piano came in.

I really should have got video – Zappa was going nuts in there.

But, with all of our attention focused on the piano, Zappa did not waste any time checking it out either.

Frank did make a few appearances, but I didn’t manage to get him on camera.

Finally, it’s here, it’s all set up and ready to be played. Technically, you are not supposed to set anything on top of the piano (so says the instruction manual), but in an effort to keep the cats from jumping up on it (they are not exactly feather weights, my giant felines), I did set a few lighter things on top.

I have a collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia (my father and my father-in-law both give me collectibles when they come across something they think I will like) that used to sit on a shelf in the spot the piano is now occupying.  A lot of it is going to be packed away for the time being, but I picked a few things for guard duty. There is a set of Coca-Cola coasters (which I bought for myself), a polar bear (from father-in-law), a small bear (which I think came from my Sister) and a clock radio (from my Dad).

I have another polar bear that my Dad gave me years ago. He’s too big to fit on the piano, so he’s keeping the piano books company.

I have to say, after all of that, I did approach the actual playing of the piano with a certain amount of trepidation. It’s been years! I don’t really want to think how many…But I was pleasantly surprised/relieved. I had brought my piano books from home and sat down to give them a try. I am definitely rusty, but it’s not as bad as I thought it might be. People have been telling me that it will come back pretty quickly – Husband too and he’s never even really heard me play – and it looks like they were right. I had one good long session yesterday, but I was at the piano a total of 5 times from the time we had it all set up (around lunch time) to when I went to bed last night. I am having so much fun already!

And as it turns out, we did get a bit of snow…

When we had dropped Sister at the ferry terminal it was just starting, but the snow came down pretty heavy for most of the day.

I took these pictures early afternoon yesterday.

And then I took these this morning…

So far today it has been back and forth between rain and snow. I still have some work to do to get things tidied away in the basement and I’m thinking I’d like to get in some yoga;  exercise has been almost non-existent and I should start easing back into it.

And of course, the piano is calling to me. Tomorrow it’s back to work, but today there is still time to play!