nonja

Last night I tried to work but only got an hour in...the rest was pilfered. I was tired. A bit frazzled. Couldn't focus to proofread things, but at least have all my reference information completed (yay). I went to bed exhausted and slept poorly-spring when the sun comes up early always mucks with my internal clock for a while. Even so, I did get up to come in and workout even tho I was sorely tempted to keep sleeping...When I got here I was so tired my double up friday workout I've been doing lately seemed a bit too evil. So I compromised. One circuit workout and then abwork and 20 minutes on the elliptical. I did a longer Bodyrock.tv workout with a small modification to their Leg Sculpt Mashup Workout. 21 minutes of 50 seconds on 10 seconds off, 3 rounds through the following:

-2 pushups + box jump

-2 V sit ups + 2 tricep dip (changed as I have no pullup bar)

-low jacks with weight (20 Lb dumbbell)

-Squat and press using weight (25Lb barbell)

-Weight pick up alternate sides to collarbone (17.5Lb dumbbell) alternating L & R

-Side plank with ab crunch L side

-Side plank with ab crunch R side

Intense. I was panting. Low jacks with weights are evil. Planks with crunches are evil. And oh, oh how the timer makes it evil. Eeeeevviiiiillll....but wow-you feel so good afterwards knowing you pushed yourself as hard as you could and did it :)

AND I have learned something new about myself-that I suck at box jumps. Seriously-using both legs at once? Useless. Never really done them before, and the first round I had a taller box and for the last 2 reps I moved to a smaller box which was thankfully right nearby. I just couldn't wrap my head around hopping that way in a hurry! Half of them were mutant split leg hop sort of things...I did NOT want to screw up and hurt myself and land on my shins (I've seen it...it looks so painful). But I didn't want to not do them. Some of the first few ended up as panicked squat jumps to keep going after I stared at the box willing myself to move in a coordinated fashion (staring at the box like a deer in the headlights)...so silly. It's a total coordination thing...of which I lack...I mean, both legs at the same time? In a hurry? Forget it.

A ninja I am not. More of a nonja...:)

And so that is my goal for April-Box jumps. Figure them out and get the muscle memory of the move down. I have enough leg and knee strength built up again to give them a go and do them properly. It won't take much time at all to do some a few times a week...and I'll try this workout again the end of April and see if I"m slightly less flaily.

This song came on at the gym today while I was stretching... major flashback. I loved this song back when I was 10. I've been humming it all morning. I thought Alannah of the Thompson Twins was *so* *cool* back then. I still know all the words...funny how songs stick with you isn't it?

Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now by jpdc11

Have a great day :) I will try to too. Step 1: stay awake :)

the sweet scent of vinaigrette

Last night was a late night of thesis work and this morning I woke up to come in and do spin and sculpt. It was a good class - I really enjoyed it. Other than my lunch leaking into the inside of my bag (it smells awesome now :P) today has been going well. I have so much to do and write...but I feel like it is coming together. So much left to do, but it's exciting and scary all at the same time. I can't just phone it in. This is all me...the hardest part is finding a way to state what I want to say clearly and concisely.

Must dash. Life calls :)

Have a great day!

I don't glow. I sweat.

Today I remembered my shoes. Hooray. :P

I came in for spin class and got my ass kicked, then did some abs and I was done.

You know, I didn't know my shins sweated until I started spinning :)

Must dash. Lots to do. Long day.

Bring it :)

Heh...oops.

Ah yes. Last night I woke up about 2000 times so I didn't get the best sleep after a boring evening of entering bibliography information (I know! How do I live with all this excitement?)...but I was up and in for my spin and sculpt class. I pushed myself and did as many of the push ups in class on my toes as I could this time...40! The other 20 were on my knees. Woo! We do 4 sets of 15 and I'm really feeling stronger. My arms are not falling off by the end...just general on fireness :) I *am* smug that the big dude next to me did more girly push ups than me. He hee. Linda Hamilton baby...

This morning I pulled a me and forgot my running shoes. Yeah I know. Classy. I just wore my (horror!) outdoor fall/winter shoes for the spin bike part and then went in socks for the sculpt part. You couldn't tell under my workout pants thankfully so no one complained. Not perfect, but after crawling out of my warm bed after I'd hardly slept there was no way I was not working out. I've never forgotten my shoes before...bras and shirts and socks to change into yes, but this is new. Further proof that I really need to get in on the locker pool next year at the semester start so I can leave some things at the gym and not haul everything every day. My feet got reaaaaaly warm but it was all good :) I actually liked the sculpt part in sock feet - I felt like I had more control on my form for lunges and the like. I may actually do it again.

Yesterday I was good with food. No stupid snackery or self sabotage. Ate well. And today is a new day, with healthy food and much to do. I am happy hyper freaked out nervous scared overjoyed all at once at the thought of finishing up my thesis and going to England and Scotland. I'm wondering if that was part of me not sleeping...not sure. I've realized we have to book our train tickets soon...they keep going up in price so I don't want to end up paying a mint to hike...Booking trips makes me nervous because you have to chose and commit to times and things and I'm more of a happy wanderer and J dislikes planning of any kind, so it's up to me to get it done. I've been daydreaming of hiking along the mountain coast on the Arran Island with J...I can't wait. Hoping for decent hikey weather...I've got the end of winter funk where it's not quite warm enough to be outside yet and even if it was...no time. Must keep working.

Just keep swimming, swimming swimming... :)

image

I'm Alive. SO alive.

Ah. After a long weekend of typing typing typing (but no workout...ahem) I got up early this morning to come in and work out. I am almost (meep!) done my hypothesis data discussion on my thesis, putting me at about 3/4 done my draft of my thesis. he hee!

This morning I wanted to sweat. My hamstring is back to normal from whatever I did to it thursday, so I was ready to go hard and burn off the lazies. I found my interval timer and I got down to business. I did ZWOW 10 (through 3 times with a 17Lb dumbbell) and then the Fire it Up Bodyrock TV workout. Man...having the interval timer really makes you push yourself. I forgot how long 50 seconds is...and 10 seconds break is not long enough! :) I was sweating and panting...but it was so good. I added their bonus ab workout along with some back extensions and crunches and their weighted cool down and was done in time for a bit of stretching and a shower. I feel so alive.

This weekend was partly healthy. I made some healthy muffins from an old recipe from the artsy hippy coffee shop I used to manage/bake in when I was in university (I stole the recipe...shhh!). They have coffee and dates and red river cereal in them. So good. (and I discovered my cat LOVES dates. Who knew?) I also made my first attempt at pumpernickel bread. It was supposed to be in the bread maker but the recipe was too small and wouldn't knead right so I ended up pulling the dough out to knead by hand and baked it myself. And wow, I am hooked - the bread is so yummy. Toasted? Heavenly. I have some for lunch with some borscht. Mmmm...

Unfortunately there was also unhealthy food -we had another family gathering last night full of awful food. I felt yechy after - Chicken Parmesan with fettuccine alfredo and terrible brochette and some "salad" full of iceberg lettuce, bacon, peas and cheese and coated in sweetened mayonnaise. bleh. The only vaguely healthy part was the trifle for dessert...it had fruit in it :) I didn't overdo it at supper but I was hungry so even tho I tried to avoid the food that I mostly didn't care for I did have too much trifle. I love trifle. I'm kinda mad at myself for not being more strict. I am getting really mad period at myself not having lost back the bit ofweight I gained over the holidays and I know it's just a matter of me being disciplined. I mean, J and I nibbled chips while watching a movie on friday. And family meals on J's side are always horribly unhealthy. I know this. I need to plan accordingly...I notice when I overwork and get stressed about school I try and medicate my feelings with food. I have to keep reminding myself that food isn't the problem or the cure...it's just food. I've gained some muscle back, but I have to find a medium ground somehow without thinking about it all the time.

Today is a new day.

Oh yes.

Today I am dialing it in. Pushing the workouts. Watching my food. I will no longer sabotage myself. Just for today. Tomorrow will come soon enough.

Well now that I've randomly babbled on for far too long I must be off . This song was in my head when I woke up and it's still rolling around and around...Hopefully I can pass it on to you all end get it out of there!

I hope you all had a nice weekend :)

Lets give them something to talk about...

I was up LATE last night working on my presentation for today. I think I've got it down and I won't go on forever ( I hope). It's a lot to talk about and hard to shorten up without possiblly boring people to death :)

As a result tho, I slept in this morning and didn't work out. My hamstring that I strained is still rather stiff from yesterday and could still use some rest so I'm going to workout tomorrow instead. For now, it's healthy breakfast (oatmeal!) and lunch and getting things done done done done done.

Have a great day.

Gotta go be a smartypants.

(Photo: The great Natalie Dee)

A little older. A l ittle wiser?

Last night I played "find the thing". Yes. Good times. I put a note from some discussions I had with my supervisor last year that I wanted to talk about in my thesis...somewhere...as you can imagine I spent a while searching for it. Annoying. I did find it though, which is good, since a lot of mystuff got moved around or erased when I started my new job...I was worried it would be missing. I'm a few hours from having a draft done of the 3rd (of 4!) part of my thesis done and I'm looking forward to getting that hypothesis section really flushed out and ready for review this weekend. I've been distracted since I have to give a speech tomorrow to other grad students on my project, so I spent a bit of time last night going over my stuff to try and find a nice coherent way to talk about it all. I think I've got something OK that isn't too random. I'm not bothered by public speaking thankfully. We're not graded on it - it's practice for our thesis defense, so I figure as much as I can do to get slides ready and get feedback for THAT the better. The sooner I can get my thesis in to the committee the sooner I can get a date to defend.

Meep.

This morning was spin and sculpt class. During sculpt, one of the weighted lunges strained my left hamstring somehow and it started hurting, so I dropped all the weight and finished as lightly as I could. If it had continued to hurt I would have stopped all together, but it wasn't too bad. I can still feel my left hamstringy butty region, so I'm hoping I didn't do anything that will be a problem. I think I just pushed out of my lunge with poor form in my half awake state. If it is still stiff tomorrow I'll just do some upper body work and let it mend for the weekend. I've been asking a lot of my butt lately. Maybe it's trying to tell me to relax a bit. :)

I just got back form my yearly physical and (assuming no weird blood work results) I am healthy. 5'5" and 132 Lbs on the doctor's fancy scale, which is a few higher than my home one, but the same as the one at the gym. Still a bit (grr) up from christmas, but I am healthy so I must be content with that and not focus on a number, but how I feel. I *am* glad to know I am strong and healthy. I met my new doctor today (my old one moved away-*sniff*) and he seems nice enough. I was hoping I'd feel comfortable with him so that I could keep him as my new family doc, and thankfully I do. Having a woman doctor isn't too important to me as long as I'm comfortable with the person. What *is* odd though is that he is the same age as me. THAT is weird. In my head all male doctors are supposed to be old and kindly squinty eyed and look like Quincy :)

Well, I should go and make myself useful today.

To the labmobile!

zoom

Another quickie. Busy day but wanted to log...

Last night I was so tired I sat down to work on my thesis and fell asleep. So I was woken up later by a giggling J and just went to bed :) Got lots of sleep!

This morning I came in & I wasn't quite sure what to do, but noticed my favourite spin instructor was teaching so I dropped in on spin class and gave it my all for 45 minutes. Now I'm raring up for a looooooooong day.

Have a good hump day everyone. I'm off into the madness...

Quick update.

Lovely evening last night. The rest of the week will be really busy so J and I spent the evening together in a cocoon of couches, eating pumpkin muffins and snuggling in front of a movie ("In Time" - not bad...). Overnight there was lightning and thunder and rain...and then snow. So glad I'm not driving today. It's ICY. Winter's last hurrah. I'm sure it will melt in a day or so - I'm afraid we jinxed things by taking off the snow tires on sunday. Sorry to all.

This morning was spin and sculpt and now another day.

Have a good day all! I'm off...

Monday, Monday, da daaah, dah da daaaaah da...

By sunday night I felt normalish again...the point where you feel your muscles and it feels cool but you don't wince when you try to sit down too quickly. I'm really gaining muscle tone on the bottom I am. It's encouraging. I'll try and keep the squeaking to a minimum tho :)

Sunday I got more thesis work done and then J and I relaxed. I had a bit of cottage cheese that had to be used up so I made up some cottage cheese pumpkin pancakes for breakfast - I wrote down the recipe so I can make them again. So good! I also made my St. Paddy's day annual meal a day late (since J had to work on saturday) proper Irish stew with pork tenderloin with some cottage dill bread my robot and I whipped up on saturday. I got a bit more done on the thesis. Good weekend...

This morning I was up and in to the gym on a foggy morning. Since friday went well I figured I'd do it again. So I did ZWOW 9 (3 rounds through in just over 10 min) and a Bodyrock bootylover workout, with all extras (did the weighted cooldown through twice). I've got that feeling you get when you've worked hard...muscle fatigue but not soreness. It feels good to push myself. I am finding these kinds of exercises far more interesting than just plain cardio. I still have spin and sculpt class for that. I'm trying to get some variation in.

I have been putting these workouts into my phone, but I think I'm going to breakdown and get a book to write them in. On days like to day when I forget my interval timer I use my phone or watch as a timer and then the screensaver kicks in and it's most annoying :) Plus I think it would be neat to look at later and see what I've been up to.

Anyways...I'm going to nibble on some cottage cheese and raspberries and a handful of granola and get to my day. Happy monday :)