Stuff and things and stuff

I had a bunch of errands to run this morning, as well as all last evening (I kid you not, I was home a total of 45 minutes to shove food in my mouth and was out all evening again until 11. This morning, to get all my stuff done and get in to work early I just got up and did what needed to be done, did some housework and got my sh*t together instead of working out. I did have breakfast though. I'm pathetic at this aren't I?
As of December I do believe I must exercise every day or all of you in blogtown can come over to my house and point at me and say "SHAME". It would work for me. I'm ubershy. Plus I like you guys...
Tonight - a swinging friday of more painting...woo. I'm sort of glad hubs is sick, as I can get the painting finished off this weekend. I do miss hanging out with him tho - I've stayed my distance to avoid the plague...so far so good. It's the last weekend of nothing much before holiday madness descends and we have stuff every waking moment. I want to get organised a bit and not let it all collapse around me.
I decided to sew some christmas presents too...so I'll have to cram that in somewhere. It's some baby stuff you can't buy anymore, so I'll make them. Should be fun.
Y'know, I do this to myself all the time. I do more, sleep less, and then sleep in and cut out exercise to get by. That's why I want a bit of a plan for things next month...exercise has to be important too, right?

On the upside, I have now stupidly/excitedly committed to doing 3 bellydance routines on valentines day (one is a solo...eep), so I'll have to do about 1/2 hour of practice a day to get them right. I still haven't even learned my solo yet. Eep. First lesson for it is sunday night...

Gotta run...breaks over :)

Chaos in Time Square

Again with the wrong time thing...
We need another clock. Stat. Luckily my cat walked across my head in time for me to make the bus no problem...but I am not into this at all. I've gotten too used to having 2 alarms...we must replace the broken one before my ass expands...I liked the sleep as today is going to be byusy and looooooooooooooooooooong, but I would've liked a workout too. At least I have a bellydance rehearsal tonight, along with lots of errands and fooling around int he fabric store...I think I'll make my 2 new little neices some stuff for christmas...cuz, y'know, I'm totally not busy or anything :)
I'm finding that last year, making gifts as we were broke from being on strike has made me rethink gifts. Again, this year, I want to bake, sew and make "recipes in a jar" for people...scarves...fun stuff I actually put thought into. I don't care if anyone buys me a thing...all I really need is a set of new earphones for my iPod as my old set just died...I think I can swing that myself.
I like that american thanksgiving happens right when this canadian starts to get annoyed and cynical with commercial holidays...makes me remember the important stuff and gives me courage to try and deal with the holidays. I'm doing things that are a gift to myself...like painting the room in our house...should hopefully be done by middle of next week... :)

Better

Ha HA!
This morning I *checked* my clock when I reset it after J got up for work (we only have 1 clock) so I actually got up at the right time and did my exerball DVD. Good stuff. And thanks to my emergency stash of good food at work I was ablt to have some toast before work.
I'm a bit miffed as the bellydance class I usually have tuesday nights was cancelled, but I have been painting a room this week...I'm counting it as core exercise :)
Tonight is white trim and ceilings...so that on the weekend I can make it green. Yay!
Gotta go...work calls.

Have you got the time?

It's important to check the *time* you set your alarm for.
Go figure.
I set it for 6:45 not 5:45...this made me late.
I missed my bus and barely made it to work.
So, no work out.
Oops...

Monday's starting out well

Well this weekend I primed...and primed...and primed...I'm banishing the screaming yellows, reds and pinks into a mellow lime green and white. Soothing instead of assaulting. Another priming on the trim and a coat of white on the no longer waterstaines ceiling, and I can start on the actual paint. A long time coming...

This morning I did get up and put on a slow cooker of chili, so when I get home supper is ready. I might make some cornbread...we'll see. Yum.

And there was time for bowl of cereal and to do my ball DVD too. So far so good...

Getting easier?

This morning I got up after a nice night's sleep (7 hours wohoo!) and worked out again - 33 minutes on the elliptical at 20% incline, with resistance 2. I kept a better pace today and my lungs gave me no problem at all...burned 420 calories and I feel great. My butt is a bit stiff from lunges yesterday, but I'll keep at it. You just feel better after you exercise...there's nothing else like it :)
Much to do...gotta run!

Music to Work out to: Plastic Vol. 6 (a compilation of electronic remixes - good stuff)

Tired me

This morning's work out was not my ball DVD, but a frantic twitch session of a few hundred situps and sidecrunches and 15 lunges (each side) and 20 squats.
Why?
It was a fun night... Our dual alarm clock is now f*cked, so J tried to take it apart to fix it yesterday, as it is now permanently going off every morning at 4:25 AM (when J gets up for work)...annoying on the weekends. Plus it can't be changed...so it's not that useful. He didn't take out the battery when deisassembling it, so this morning at 4:25 I got to play find where the damn clock is in the house...and was annoyed and awake once I turned it off. Then, J said, "reset the spare alarm for 5...I'm tired" (we'd stayed up far too late watching The Prestige). So I did, and barely managed to go to sleep before it went off. Then I reset it for 5:45 (when I was going to get up and work out)....and just barely got to sleep when J came to kiss me goodbye, a full 10 minutes before I was going to get up...so again...no sleep...so, as a result I was so tired I hit snooze a few times in my sleep once I *did* fall asleep for a bit and was nearly late for work, as I was going in 40 minutes early to get a super long project done.
So yeah...I had 10 minutes to work out.
Woo.
So I made the best of it, stocked up on caffeine and came in to work.
I suppose it's better than nothing...

Tadaaah!

Yes it's true - this morning I worked out.
For real.
It was, as the young ones say, the shizzle.
I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at resistance level 2 and incline 20%. The last 5 minutes was a battle with my asthma, but I persevered with some controlled breathing and finished it...burned 385 calories according to the robot in the elliptical. I feel great.

I'm BACK baby!

Later: did you know the muscles on the *tops* of your arms can be sore? Mine have been after all the raking...I couldn't figure out a way to stretch that part.
It feels very odd...

Did I work out this morning?
Hells no.
But I have a good reason (oh stop laughing...)
Yesterday the snow melted and it was sunny and pleasantish (~2 degrees) so I put on my gloves of power and became Yardgnome, defender of yards.
I used my mighty powers to trim up the hedges in the front yard, clear up the debris and then I raked the whole back and sides of the yard, as wella s along the hedge, while J winterised the car. AND we're nearly done operation clean sweep - just the computer area and the clutter in the kitchen...*and* I'm starting to repaint a bedroom this weekend, so I've been prepping that room.
It took me almost 3 hours and I confess that when I finished up I don't think I could have lifted an individual leaf, let alone worked out. There's a lot of leaves back there, and branches and such...and the leaves were mostly wet, making for some hard raking. I did a lot of stretching so I'm not really stiff today, but we were up very late visiting some family in town for the day, so I just could not drag my ass out a half an hour early to get in a workout.
Tomorrow tho - for real. I have been busy, honest!

Yardgnome Awaaaaaay!!!

The horror. The horror.

Preserve me...it's starting already.
The baking...the holiday baking.

I have a strong willpower usually...I am not one who likes sweets (I'm a crunchy salty snacker) and usually my only weaknesses at the holidays are my Mum's homemade nuts and bolts mix, my Mum-in-laws white chocolate covored pretzels (she uses belgian chocolate people)...and shortbread. I love shortbread. For some reason the melt in your mouth buttery goodness cannot be denied...I don't eat a lot of it, but I cannot see it and not have one.

*sigh*

A senior researcher just stopped by my lab with a giant box of shortbread cookies for the lab. I tried to smile and gracefully take 1. "Take 2!" he said "My wife made them"...and I did...they were so good...I at them both.

I'm doomed.

I can't hear you....

I did nothing all weekend but cook delicious food and eat it.
Oh dear.
I have my fingers in my ears so I can't hear you...lalalalalalala!

OK...I know.
I am eating well usually, and I've been at the yard and house...it's fall/spring/where the heck did I put that? cleaning at casa Geo.

And as of next week? I'm rocking the elliptical. I am determined to lose ~5 Lb by Christmas, as I know that if we are at my parent's over the holidays I'll likely gain 5 Lb over the holidays...so...um...that way I'll be null and void and the same as now come January.

Is this totally silly?

another reason fat = poor health : Arthritis

I was helping J shoot a segment for one of the shows he works on last night to spend a bit of time together (let's just say he's been working too much lately) and the main guest they had on the show was very interesting - the topic of the day was arthritis. The guy being interviewed was one of the top researchers in the nation and one of the things he touched on really struck me...he pointed out the the fact that being overweight puts excessive stress on joints, leading to increased acute arthritis, at a much earlier age than it would normally be seen. So not only is being large and sedentary a problem, but it is like a self repeating circle...eventually you won't be *able* to move around at much of any sort of a normal level as you'll be out of shape AND in pain. your body would truly be a prison...and losing weight with arthritis pain would be a true challenge and test of endurance. I'm not sure I would have the fortitude. This struck me so deeply, as I have seen this in my sister in law already but never put it together. Her weight is over 350 and she is already having difficulty with stairs and driving a standard car, in addition to her being winded from walking farther than a block or two. She is less and less active as time goes on, and complains of aches and pains. She also now has to sleep with a mask on at night due to sleep apnea, and was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. This just drove home the inevitability of her having this to look forward to. Sad...as a large number of her health maladies are largely preventable if she could lose even part of her weight. She's tried, but had a hard go of it and has never really kept at it. It is discouraging...losing so much weight is no simple thing. To me, I just don't see how living in a painful body is not a huge wake up call to become more healthy. It's what triggered me and I only had about 40lbs to lose. I worry for her... I want my brother and her to have many happy years together.
Here's a scary thought - The guest on the show went further to say that the general 10% increase in obesity (and trend towards even greater numbers) in the Canadian population will likely lead to a 25% increase in arthritis in the next 20 years. For something like arthritis that can be addressed early, this is remarkable...

This has really given me a kick in the pants to be more active. It's also gave me the reminder to look after myself and not push too hard. The guest also said that stressful injuries from overexercise and "going back too soon" after injury, particularly in the ages 15-40, is a leading cause of painful joint damage resulting in more severe arthritis later in life. I don't want my body to be a prison, or depend on arthritis medication to live a better life...I want to look after myself.
So I ask you all: Would you make the commitment to look after yourself too? There's so many reasons to do even little things to benefit your health. Not perfection...not uberfitness or diet. Just practical healthy diet and some activity in your life. Please. For me? I worry.

My goal for november is to be kind to my body.
...and back to work.
*ahem*
Gotta go...

The cat ate my rake

I put off yard work until this weekend...but haven't gotten too much done.
Why?
Well I'll be hanged if I can find my rake.
There is an old crappy one that I've made a half assed effort with, but it's not going too well...I'm sure I burn at least half the calories if I'm raking halfassed...