Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!
Rupert the science bear here, keeping it real in the laboratory.

I came in for my morning workout and got into sculpt class for a solid workout and now it's a fun day here in the lab with nuns, Blues Brothers and Indiana Jones. I love my coworkers :)

hooray

It's my birthday. Lah de dah :)
I slept in a bit this morning and after moping and whinging and psyching myself up I finally got down to it and worked out. I did the catch my breath bodyrock.tv workout with bonus abwork. Geek helped by hopping on my back and adding weights to the pushups. How nice. The end ones were not elevated...but I did the workout through and pushed myself. Getting in a workout is what counts.

I celebrated my birthday with a breakfast smoothie. I love smoothies, but our blender is stupidly loud so I don't use it often in the early hours...but today I wanted a yummy smoothie. Strawberries, yogurt, vanilla protein and a bit of pomegranate juice. Yum.
Today should be a busy day, and J is taking me out to our favourite indian restaurant for supper. :)
Hope you all have a great day!

Fit for life is more than a cliche

I ran across this article at JCFitness today and it really echoes how I've been feeling lately.
Having worked hard to get into reasonable shape, I struggle from time to time at maintaining my losses and was rather bummed out about not being able to keep up the physique I'd built for myself in the spring, where I was my leanest and most muscular in my life. At first I moped...then I wondered if it was actually possible (or even desirable) to maintain what I thought was my ideal body. And I'm not sure if it is.
The thing is, at my ubermostest (yes that's a word, I'm calling it) I was running on 4 hours of sleep a night, over-caffeinated and on a very restrictive diet. But not restricted necessarily for weight loss -  simply was so stupidly busy that I had to plan out all of my meals and had little or no times for snacks or dessert or my beloved beer. So, of course I was lean...and mean. And proud of it...I knew I looked good and it was one small part of my life that I could manage and feel confident about as I slaved away and tried not to go too crazy.
When I finally finished my thesis and defended I suddenly had all this time...and all this time to cook. And I love to cook. I almost went to chef training instead of biochemistry and for me there is nothing more relaxing than cooking or baking elaborate foods and then enjoying them with others along with some delicious craft beer or wine. My diet has changed - I eat low sodium, low sugar and low processed foods now, and generally eat quite healthy, but there is a lot more opportunity to live "normally" again...and I like it. I'm seeking a balance between fitness and health and happiness.

For me...a lot of it is coming to terms with the fact that I can eat well and clean and workout regularly but still may not attain the superlean me I thought I wanted. It might come and go in phases, but, ultimately I just don't want to be miserable, tired and cold all the time in the pursuit of a perfect ass. Yes, I need to do some work on my posterior and I'm just back to my pre "hooray lets eat everything to celebrate being done school" phase, but I don't want to be super restrictive anymore, unless the scale starts to creep up and I need to check in. I want to find a way to live life apart from obsession with food and calories and  pounds and hydration and *insert fitness obssession here*...because this is long term. This is the me for the rest of my life. I'd rather go up and down ~5 Lbs and be healthy and strong than be ultra ripped like the host Lisa-Marie on Bodyrock.tv. For one I *know* I'm not genetically built to be that physique (I'm long waisted and lean with pear shaped hips). I'm just curvy. I like being curvy. I can be healthy and still have some meat on me...turns out I don't like the look of superlean physiques after all. I'm one of those lucky people whose abs show through because I'm lean in the waist, but still jiggle all over in my butt, and the way I lived and ate to have a perfect butt...well...yes, I liked the way my bum looked in a short skirt, but really...life is more than that. My husband loves me and always has and I receive compliments often on how I look thin and healthy. That should be enough. I am striving so that it WILL be enough.

Guess what I'm trying to say is what the article ended up saying. Being below 10% bodyfat isn't all it's cracked up to be. Yes...you will look hawt...and it may not be maintainable. This is the long haul be your best and enjoy the ride sort of life...not "if I'm skinny everything will be perfect" life. I am tired of feeling like I'm giving up just because I want to have a more moderate life. I want the workout endorphins. I still want to push myself...but because of how *good* it feels. Not out of guilt or shame.

Restricting my life for 2 and a half years to work full time while in grad school has showed me many things: I know I can multitask, I'm stubborn (mostly in a good way!), my needs are important, saying no is OK, and most important of all - my health and well being are important and do not equal a number.

Right nowI want nothing more than to spend time with my loved ones and enjoy this wonderful ride called life. :)

Saturday was a really good day

MSc Grad robes are cool...
They have serious batwings!!!

 Seriously tho - it was awesome. I am now all graduated up, complete with diploma. My Dad came down for the day and we went out for mexican food later...horchata. Mmmm...

 Oh - and my Lady Vader Costume...it worked out fantastic :) Had a fun night out relaxing with friends. This costume was a blast to make and fun to wear...glad I got out somewhere to wear it :)

What are your schemes for Halloween??

All this fun and I still have my birthday this week.
Giggedy.
No workout tomorrow, since I have to be in early to submit something...back at it on tuesday. Gotta get in a workout on my birthday.
Have a great day everyone! :)

atomic

Up with the atoms this morning. Came in to work out and snuck in to spin and sculpt class for a good workout. I've got to get my flu shot today at work and then get down to some sciency work...I am so glad it's friday.  Tomorrow I get all dolled up to graduate, head out for supper at my favourite mexican restaurant and then go out for a halloween party after.
Should be fun :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

The one where I slept thru my alarm

Well, I missed my morning workout due to miss-setting my alarm (5:20 PM anyone? *sigh*). I still woke up in time for work thankfully, but unfortunately not for my workout. I miss my endorphins...hopefully friday will be a reboot.

I was happy and tired after watching J cover the local civic election live on TV. He was on air interviewing people (and being generally handsome and awesome) for 2 and a half hours. SO proud :)

Tonight I have a bit of tidying and painting to do to get ready for grad celebration this weekend...and possibly a bonfire this weekend. We shall see. At the moment I'm enjoying the low key generality of life. I can't believe I convocate on saturday :)

the one where i finally got some sleep

It's been a bit chaotic around here...I'm in the doghouse after possibly damaging our van by ignoring a warning light. I didn't heed one...one of my most stupid moments in life...Then I forgot to tell J about it... And when I remembered and learned what the light meant I took a few days to work up the nerve to fess up. Just a bad idea and behavior and I am not proud. Not one bit.
Last 2 days I haven't come in to work out. Yesterday due to complete stressed out lack of sleep. Today, due to catching up on aforementioned total lack of sleep. Last night was supper, 2 hour nap, 1 hour work then bedtime for 8 more hours. Although I still have many things left to deal with, I feel human again after some sleep. Sleep is good.
Tonight I have to go vote in our city election, the head home to some chores and painting. I hope to have time to bang out a bodyrock workout before bed. J has to cover the election all night so I may workout while watching his handsome face on the telly. Then...more sleep and intense grovelling...
*kermit hands*

The one where I grow a pair and use power tools

Well this weekend was totally not what I thought it would be but in the ends was exactly what it should have been. My husband has put in lots of overtime lately had a long stressed out crazy week, and having lived through a lot of that myself, when it came down to stressing out a lot about driving 6 hours to Edmonton for a great party, where he would not have a costume...we just decided to stay home and relax and put the gas money to good use. I will save my costume for another time. J solidly spent most of his time relaxing and unwinding for the first time in weeks, and I? This weekend I got around to many things I've wanted to for about 6 months now.
Yes...this weekend I became a man. :)
Saturday was a warm up. Since our furnace was replaced (last year...cough) the basement has been in complete disarray from having moved half of it and cramming it ALL into my craft room. Literally. You couldn't even go into the room it was so full of STUFF. So disheartening, but I refused to just move junk around...I wanted to reorganize it all properly and haven't had the time...until now. I spent all saturday attacking that room...and I won. Took a whole carload of cardboard and recyclables in and a carload of old records and clothes to a local charity shop (leftover from my dad). Now, there is still a long way to go to get it more organized but the crap is gone and things are grouped for sorting out in the next few weeks. You can walk around in there. It's a room again. My haven for me is a real room again.
Hooray.

Then sunday I proved that women can use power tools and learn about cars.
We have an odd van - a  Mitsubishi Starwagon Delica L300 we imported from Japan as a camping vehicle and it's my husband's second lover...and I haven't had time or made the effort to learn about it until this weekend. I asked my husband to show me all the important things on the Delica I should know to drive it responsibly. We checked the tranny fluid and it seems nice and red (the sensor has been acting up apparently so we need to replace the sensor), and J showed me how to check the oil and all other fluids (which are all inside the van under the centre console and passenger seat) and where the fuses and jack are.
Then I got my manliness on and got to work. The back area of our basement has a workbench (currently mountained with random tools. ahem.) and is the place where all the crap that was in my craft room came from. I have wanted a storage unit back there for ages and so I measured, planned and schemed and it was off to Home Depot in the van for some lumber. Then I threw on a work jacket, gloves and toque and worked outside with my drill and chop saw and built custom shelves for the back room. They aren't fancy...just functional, strong and exactly what we need. Custom L shape with 4 stacking shelves, exactly the right depth for the rubbermaid bins I will be buying to sort and store all our junk in. J helped me mount them to the wall and secure the cross shelving after supper. We worked together and finished the evening with an ice cold Grolsh feeling very proud of ourselves.
We are the man!

This morning I came in to work out and got to squish into the spin and sculpt class and got a great workout overall. Now, a long day of meetings and bellydance class before I head home to complete some scientific abstracts that I have to submit wednesday morning. I can tell already, it's gonna be a great day!
Have a good one everyone :)

Shhh. Sleeping lady. zzzzzzzz.......

Costume is as done as it's going to be. When I wear it I'll post some pics. Here's a bit of a sneak of some of the accessories...got the grommets into the corset...they're not great because I don't have the proper grommet tool, but it will do. There's also a lightsaber cane I made. Oh yes...when I get into this I can't stop half way :)

I am tired tho. Had insomnia last night after a long annoying evening. My husband's costume stuff didn't arrive in time so he has no costume for the Star Wards party we were going to go to tomorrow. He isn't sure if he wants to go, and if he isn't going I don't know if I want to drive 5 hours to where it is just to dress up and go to a party on my own...he feels bad cuz I made this costume for this party, but I don't mind if we don't go -I know me. I know I'll wear it some other time...I'm leaving it up to him. Altho I hope he decides to go, I'm honestly happy to wear it around to another party here around Halloween or some other time... or just around the house :P Making the costume is more fun for me than wearing it...I'm odd that way. I may just set up a photo shoot with it instead and take some cosplay photos instead...we'll see. It was fun.
So needless to say on 1.5 hours of sleep I certainly didn't work out this morning. Taking the day as it goes...

Classy

If I stand in one spot, my butt is not sore. Otherwise...I'm doomed. :)
I lost track of time and was up waaaaay too late last night. My costume is almost done. The main thing left is grommets in the corset. The lady sold me eyelets by mistake which aren't strong enough for a corset tie lace up, and I only have half of what I need leftover from a previous project. Soooo, tonight is a late night "I need grommets!!" hunt... and I really hope I can find some. The corset ties the costume together so it's kinda imperative I find some. The mask needs more work, but considering it is a $4 kids mask I took apart with a hacksaw it looks pretty good. Other than that, it's come together nicely. I haven't made the cape (am going for a neck scarf/shawl instead) and I'm using a skirt I already have, so it will be ready for the weekend. Yup...I'll be dead classy :)

I slept in this AM to get 6 hours of sleep, had some pumpkin oatmeal and I'm in for work. I plan on a bodyrock workout when I get home eventually...poor J has yet another late night of work, so once I succeed in my grommet quest I can work out and relax and finish up the costume. I'm hoping I can work some off the azzkinks out as the day goes on, cuz I am mega stiff from the workout yesterday. :)

Must get to the science. Lots to do today.
Later taters.