Things I learned yesterday

Well to be honest really, it is probably learned "again".

When you come home tired and feeling a little sorry for yourself, only to discover that large pizzas (and not nice homemade ones) are supper here are a few things I should have done instead of what I did.

1. Go straight to the fruit dish and eat an apple and have a bit of water before hitting the pizza.  Then probably wait at least 5 or 10 minutes before pizza.
2. Prepare a plate with a few veggies on it and only then put a slice of pizza on the plate.
3. Most definitely leave the pizza box in the kitchen, your lap in front of the tv is NOT the new home for mr. pizza box.
4. Have a nice glass of cold water handy while you dine on pizza and veggies.
5. If the pizza is truly good - not just that terrible, fast food, over salted, over processed, artificial additive filled substitute for actual good flavour - and you are still hungry go ahead and have seconds.  And definitely best to stop there.  With seconds probably make sure to prepare a side of fruit for dessert to make the meal feel finished.
6. Most definitely drink a nice big glass of water an hour or so after eating, that pizza was probably really salty and you don't want thirst urges to start masquerading as other urges (i.e the desire to eat a whole large dark chocolate bar).

Thus, lessons are learned and documented here so that I might retain these ideas and not let myself fall into old traps/patterns etc.

Achilles the worst greek legend ever

Oh man I hate my Achilles right now, it is hurting when I walk and definitely nixed the running after just a couple minutes today.  So I say booooooooo to it.  Why couldn't he have died from a splinter in the thumb or something, I could have handled a sore thumb today.

But what I am doing is planning to use the couch to 5 k timings to work on the stationary bike for the rest of this week and hopefully get that achilles back in order.  I figure since biking I find exceedingly hard it could always use some work.  Will also set my self some core work to follow each one.  Seems like a good fill in to me.

Wish me luck on recovering my achilles so I can go back to being surprised that I am a "runner".

Muscle aches, and sweaty TRX

Yesterday I did my last week 7 run.  I picked up the pace and have paid the price a little bit. My calves don't enjoy the increased pace and my achilles area on my one leg is a little sore.  So I will be taking the pace back down for next week and keeping a close eye on it (might actually do some running/walking ones instead of the full 28 minutes of running that is on the slate for next week). But I will see how it goes.

Today's TRX class was sure a sweaty one. 7, 17, felt like 70 varieties of squats were certainly part of the sweat building process.  I find it very strange that I actually don't mind squats in TRX but I just despise them any other time.  Guess it is just about how the straps even if you are holding them lightly (my goal although the grip tightens up for some of the squat types for sure) just help you to do squats the way a person should do them.

We also did this killer bit of hamstring work that ended with me with an actual pool of sweat in that dip spot at the collar bone.  Man that was some of the best/worst hamstring stuff I have done in a long time.  They were definitely crying for mercy.

And in the pantheon of sweat makers let us not forget the wonderful plank on the partial arc.  Oh as if the first one wasn't hard enough with one foot out then the other.  The second round we were rotating our hips and then did one leg (not me though the rotating was entirely enough for me, so my plank finished up with both feet on the ground).  Oh except I forgot we kind of pushed back and forth heels back then forward.

Anyway it was a great TRX class and boy it sure seemed to build a sense of community with all of us because it was great chatting with people afterwards – just an extra dose of the always friendly environment.

More C25K

I was just taking a look at the couch to 5K plan I am following and I am up to week 7 now.  Warm up walk followed by 25 minutes of running (jogging).  The plan indicates 25 minutes or 2.5 miles which works out to 4K.  Well here I thought I was doing good just managing the 25 minutes and having increased the speed a small amount over the first day of doing it.

But my distance leaves a LOT of room for improvement.  Right now including the 5 minute warm up walk and the 25 minute run I am only hitting about 3.6 K.  So I definitely still have a bit of work to do on getting my running speed up.

I do know I am not really pushing myself in a cardio sense for the runs.  I can still sing pretty much at any point of the run right now.  So I know I can keep working on stepping up the speed.  Tomorrow is the last day of the week for running and my goal is to increase my running speed for the duration of the 25 minute run to 7.4 with at least a little bit of it at 7.8 (usually at the end I feel a desire to speed it up a bit).  That should get me to around 3.1 or so for the run portion.

It is a little disheartening to me that my pace is so far below what I would need to hit 4K in 25 minutes.  Just was doing a bit of math on it and it looks like I have to move it up by a full 2.1K/hour to hit that (so my 7.4 will need to increase to 9.5).  That is definitely going to take some time!  I think my intermediate goal will be to get to 8.5 for a pace.  That would be amazing as far as I am concerned (if I did the math right it would mean about a 35 minute 5K).  But even with my current pace I would be happy.  Will just keep on rolling and see where this lands me!

Saturday Morning TRX

My morning starts with the insane cats demanding breakfast "alarm" going off, a full hour before the real alarm was set.  More sleep please, my bleary eyes demanded.  Alas it was not to be, so up I got.  I grabbed my giant mug of water and chug a lugged.  I like kicking the day off with a nice big drink of water, it sets the tone for the day.

This morning it seemed that breakfast required musical accompaniment so I hit up YouTube to find the song that was stuck in my brain from yesterday.  50 Ways to Say Goodbye by Train, this catchy song was one I had only heard a couple of times but enjoyed.  My enjoyment increased 10 fold as I almost shot cereal out my nose laughing over the actual lyrics of the song (and the video).  Breakfast done I hit play on the song another couple times so I could dance around the house like a lunatic.  Also a great way to kick off your day – dancing like crazy.

Getting ready to head out to TRX class included making up my post workout version of a chocolate malt/milk.  Most of a banana, a big old scoop of cocoa powder, a big heaping heaping tsp of natural (just peanuts) peanut butter, and a cup of whole milk.  Blend this up and you have one of the most delicious things I have ever drunk.  Plus it has all that great protein and some nice natural sugars from the banana to make your muscles say "Thanks!" after your workout.

So off I went to TRX, my morning started great despite the cat alarm and I was looking forward to more.  And I was not disappointed.  The workout with TRX and Restore is always a great one.  My legs feel the burn, my arms feel the burn, I work my core a tonne.  And then I get to stretch and restore too.  How can you beat that awesome combination!  Carly definitely gave me something to feel great about, and I did feel great afterwards.  I saw Jana greeting a new client and I just wanted to run over to her and tell her that the place can change your body and your life if you are ready for it.

After the workout I grabbed my super delicious smoothie and took a minute or two to enjoy every last drop (out of my Lead Pilates water/tea glass bottle).  Then the ever awesome Amy at the front gave me a list of the Sirius radio channels so someday I will hate that thing in my car less than I do now.  But, no matter what or how I feel about my radio faceplate, nothing could beat the fact that as I went to drive out of the parking lot today, I had to yield to the shiny red heart balloon that was floating down the street.  It apparently was meandering its way to a date with a tree on the other side of the intersection.  It really was quite amusing watching it float along and wondering where it was headed.

To wrap things up off I went to the farmers market to pick up some lovely carrots, beef, cheese, and various other excellent locally made/grown foods.  The carrots may or may not make it into the soup I am making today (butternut squash, yam, with a touch of curry, and homemade chicken soup stock).

A great day already and it is just noon!!!!!

A Little Disappointed

I ran again today - intending to do week 6 day 3 which is 22 minutes of straight running.  But I just couldn't make it.  Perhaps it is the cold at work but I broke it up and did 10 minutes with a 2 minute walk break and then 10 more minutes of running.  Even at that it was pretty hard to get through the 10 minute intervals.

On Friday I am going to give it another shot. Hopefully the cold will have cleared up some.  And I am planning to do it in the morning before work - I think that may help as well (today I ran at lunch time which is better than after work but not as good as the morning).

So if you are out there wide world, wish me a little bit of luck for Friday.

Out of Town Revelations

Well after 11 days away from home, in a really nice little place (St. Charles Missouri) I recognized a few things that I want to work on.

One, I have let my portion control edge it's way back up.  This is very evident when I find myself eating full restaurant meals (which we know are crazy oversized most of the time) and then following it up with dessert. This is something that I can and will be working on over the next little while - getting my portions back into reasonable amounts.

Next, that I need to get back to being more self aware, looking at my moods and the other things that influence my choices.  I certainly found my evenings alone while out of town to be a bit more solitary than I was happy with. I am not someone who needs or wants to be constantly surrounded by people, but it is a bit lonely 11 suppers by yourself.  I sure chose a lot more desserts than I needed to - although I will blame some of that on the awesome restaurants and the temptation of all the interesting desserts.

Great revelation - I really have fully habituated a few things.  Vegetables are an easy choice for me now, it is rare that I even look very longingly at the french fry option for a side (I won't deny I still consider them sometimes but I pretty much never choose them anymore).

The thought of white bread mostly grosses me out now.  Seeing it so prevalent there just kind of drove it home for me.  I still and probably will always love my mom's home made white bread (or better yet cinnamon buns) but mostly I just can't be bothered with the stuff - if I am going to have bread I want it to have some substance, some whole grains, some various mixed grains even better, a few seeds or something mixed it is even better.

All in all I guess I am feeling pretty good about my time out of town, helped me refocus and get myself back on track.  And great choices since then!  More to come.

20 minute miracle

Today was the 20 minutes of straight running in the C25K schedule and I almost talked myself out of it when I started.  But I decided to go for it and boy am I glad.  It went fantastic.  I ran it mostly faster than I have been running most of the time lately.

I am certain that running in the morning is just way better - I am able to run faster and feel better while doing it and feel less fatigued.  All good things in my books.  So mornings it will be - as often as possible!

Well I am off for a while - out of town for some training for work. I am planning to do week 6 while I am away - and maybe will even start out on week 7.  I am feeling pretty good right now and so it seems like a good idea to keep at it!

Pushing Myself

Today I did day one of week 5 of C25K - it has 3 5 minute duration runs.  Boy I can tell you I had to work for it today. Each one of those intervals of 5 minutes felt really long to me today - I wanted to slow down on all of them - not really because I was that tired in truth but mostly just because they seemed to be taking forever.

But I made it through, and I didn't slow down I kept up the pace I had set for them (which is quite frankly not very fast to begin with - it probably would have been hard to go much slower and still be jogging lol).

Tomorrow is day two of week 5 - and it has an eight minute interval I am going to try very hard to make it through that one without slowing down.  Day after is 20 minutes straight and I am still not sure how I will make it through that one LOL.

But one step towards doing well on those is that I am going to bed nice and early tonight so I can have the energy for that run!  And a little private dance party in the morning (I am going to start dancing for 2 or 3 songs each morning to get the blood pumping).

On to the next little victory, tomorrow morning!

Victory and Defeat

Here is a little story of a small victory and a small defeat.  Start with defeat so I can end on a high note ;-)

So last night as I sat and played that silly computer game for hours until my hand felt like it belonged to an 80 year old arthritic grandma.  I followed it up with take out food, and hours of television (well a movie and several episodes of a series on netflix).  This despite my stated desire the other day of cutting back on both game play and television screen time.  So a defeat, and one I did while consciously telling myself I had said I wasn't going to do this anymore.  Well, the justification monster came out and said, get this out of my system (although that was the excuse for it time too) so I can start fresh.  But this time I am headed out of town for some training (and a couple of days of holiday time as well).

So, it will be good to be away from all of this and able to concentrate on something more productive.  I am hoping to work more on my writing.  Sadly there is a second part to this defeat - I was up until a hideously late hour and subsequently didn't get to my Essentrics class today.  But I will be running tomorrow and I did a bunch of housework today so that at least had me moving a little bit.  My plan is to get tonnes of walking in while I am away.

Now on to victory, in this case victory of my self sufficiency and creativity over badly designed products.  As I just mentioned I was doing a bit of housework - mostly dishes and the related tasks.  Well I emptied out a few sealer jars and washed them and the lids.  The sink we have is rectangular with actual corners not rounded ones, so that is already a pet peeve.  But the drain seemed okay, until one of the sealer jar lids settled into it on top of the plug.  And it was stuck, with no give to be able to pop one side down a bit so I could grab the other end etc.Why did they design the drain so it sat down in that deep a drain, and why doesn't the plug have the little handle coming up enough so that something wouldn't sit flat across just like that.  Well I guess they designed it for looks, not for people to actually really use!

So my little anger ball started to build up, because I just wanted to drain the sink and finish up, but no, this lid was jammed in there with no hope of getting it out.  I was definitely considering just leaving it after I used a table knife to try and get it to pry loose with no luck.  Seemed like it would make sense to just leave it in there for my husband to deal with (since the sink was his choice - and in fairness it looked like it would be great because it is nice and big etc so I can't blame him for the choice, although I was trying to as I got frustrated with that stupid lid!).

But I decided that was just a bit of a ridiculous response and not one that will help me be a better person LOL.  So I bailed the water out of the sink and could clearly see what I already knew (that the pry attempt with the knife meant the lid was ruined).  I grabbed the hammer and a handy little punch and I got that baby out of there all on my own.  I know, you might be thinking "big whoop" but it just feels good to be doing those handy things on my own - I didn't leave it for someone else.  I guess we grow up a little more all the time if we want.

Another Run

Today my week 4 C25K run was even better than yesterday.  It went well, I went a little faster and I felt good through it.  I did my run at lunch time today again and that was good.  I am liking the lunch time run for the time being although I am looking forward to trying to get to the stage of going in the morning before work.  To that end I am going to start working on getting to bed a little earlier and waking up a little earlier.

And I would say it was a good day of keeping my promises to myself in getting myself going to do my run when a little part of me was trying to skip out on it because it was so nastily cold outside.  Tomorrow will be my day off for the running but I am going to do the physio exercises I have been supposed to be doing for a while now.  I am going to decide on a schedule for that as well - right now I am thinking that if I could do it 3 times a week that would be a good start.  And that the "setting" my core I should do at least twice a day every day.  So maybe that is where I will start tomorrow morning.  With setting my core a couple times first thing in the morning.

On the topic from yesterday I do feel like my pocket full of sunshine was there for me today - I kept it kind of in mind most of the day and it was a good day overall.

Pocket full of sunshine

I watched the movie Easy A last night, I love that movie so much.  It has a part with that Pocket Full of Sunshine song and it has been stuck in my head since then.  But what a great idea a pocket full of sunshine - no one can take away your pocket full of sunshine.  This just takes me right to the Covey idea of us being greater than our moods - one of my favourite concepts of all time - even if it is one I have a lot of work to live up to.

This is part of the quote I found online (although it is a little different than the one I was thinking of but this one is perhaps even more important for me right now).

By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.  --Covey

Pair that with the idea of carrying a pocket full of sunshine around and that can lighten up any mood that might have me considering letting my mood rule my behaviour!

Glad I came on here tonight to write about this as it really just helped me to clarify something.

On the topic of fitness of the physical sort (not the mental sort that was the topic of the first part of this).  I did the week 4 run pattern today - glad I have worked myself back to that stage.  I know that next week I will be able to do the week 5 again - so back to where I was before the Christmas break and the cold/flu.  So that just adds an extra ray of sunshine to carry around in my pocket for the next time I need one!

Big Fat Liar

Just lies, to myself.  I tell myself that I am going to work on some challenge or another and then I don't even really make an effort.  So, what is my lie right now, mostly the tv and computer game one.  I haven't really cut down very much at all.  I took a couple days away from the game but then was right back to it.  The sad part isn't really so much that I am doing the watching/playing, it is that I am NOT doing what I had hoped to use that time for.

So again here is the re commitment that I will work on this.  And the challenge is that tonight is the night I had planned for my game playing night, but I used up that game playing time yesterday and the day before so none for me tonight.

And of course there is the catch that the lies to myself in this area and in eating commitments means I am much more likely to end up honestly being back to the first two words in the post title.

Cutting Back

I know I often don't like thinking about things as cutting back, or restricting etc.  I rather think of ways to expand on their alternatives etc.  But I think in the face of some of my choices lately I want to think of restriction and cutting back a little bit.

First, is cutting back on the amount of screen time I am spending on non-productive endeavours.  TV watching and computer game playing I am looking at you!  Both those things have taken up a huge amount of my time lately and I really want to move away from that.  I have done really well on the computer game front already - having decided that a bit of time on weekends is all it gets from now on.  As for TV, with a cold/flu battering me around a bit I had been taking refuge in hours and hours of the boob tube (at least it is through Netflix so there are none of the toxic commercials I so despise).

But, excuse of cold or whatever I need to cut back.  So I have decided that one tv episode a day is the new limit.  I can also watch a couple of movies a week - haven't decided on a number yet but I am going to shoot for no more than 3.  That does not count any movies I might actually leave the house to see in a theatre, those are outings and as such will not count against me.

I will try to keep note of where I am at with this commitment to restriction over the next couple of months.

Excusercise

Totally stole that term from someone else who used it recently.  But that is what I did today.  Instead of going to do my c25K day today I looked at my bag and saw I forgot my water bottle and that was enough to make me skip it.

Sad I know.  I really think I need to get things worked out so I am able to do that run in the morning, so much easier for me to not excuse myself from it.  But the plan is for tomorrow and Friday to both be run days now so that is okay with me.

Right now I think I will use my time skipping exercise to close my eyes and pretend to nap.

Reasons for Eating

I know last post I said I was going to talk about emotional eating and think about how I can reconcile that quote from yesterday with emotional eating.  But a related subject is in mind and I want to talk about it instead.

So yesterday the hubby brought home something from the bakery, it is a favourite of mine and they are really delicious.  But he brought home 4 of them (oh how I wish he had brought only one so I wouldn't have to talk about this lol).  These are a treat I love, they are from the local bakery so I know they aren't as loaded with crap as the stuff you get at the store etc.  But still loaded with sugar etc so not really a "real" food qualifier.  And I know this, and I know I really enjoy them, so what did I do, I ate 2 of them instead of just one for dessert and with the mindset of "I need to get rid of these so I can start fresh".  What kind of thinking is that????  This time is sure wasn't about pleasure or any of those great reasons from the quote.  Why do I say that - because I didn't savour those desserts that I love, I wolfed them down to get them gone.

Well it sure isn't eating for pleasure, community, etc but it is all about one of the negative side effects of the desire to eat healthy foods with the "nutritious" label stamped on.   With all things there is the flip side of the coin.  If I want to eat nutritiously on an ongoing basis it follows that I have to "end" my non nutritious eating ways - one way to do that - eat all the non nutritious stuff in the house so there is none left lol.  Sadly more always seems to show up.

Just had to write about this, I always think writing about something like this helps me to avoid making the same choice for the same reason another time.  So here is to eating for good reasons like pleasure more often going forward.

Real Fooding it

I want to start out by quoting something I just read from Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food

"We forget that, historically, people have eaten for a great many other reasons than biological necessity.  Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity.  As long as people have been taking meals together, eating has been as much about culture as it has been about biology."

This is such an interesting quote to me.  For such a long time on the WW site you would see so much discussion of how to avoid eating all the great food at various gatherings and events.  Just an ongoing topic that would revive at every major holiday, and any life event points etc.  So, trying to get in line with the above quote makes for some interesting thinking - at least in my books.

The couple of catches here are that often the food at the gatherings under considerations are not real foods but again as Pollan phrases it "foodlike substances".  So, those would be wise for us to avoid.  But what about when those are the main things there and few other real foods are available.  What then of our opportunity to engage in food for pleasure and community etc?  This is actually what makes it really hard in my mind.

Then there is the nature of the food like substances and how they (at least in my own experience) tend to leave a body and mind unsatisfied leading to the consumption of larger quantities to find that elusive satisfaction, that elusive pleasure.  Then too, many of those foods are loaded up with all kinds of "taste" junk (sweeteners, artificial flavours etc), so while they may seem somewhat pleasurable to eat, the satisfaction likely still isn't there.  Along with that lack of satisfaction my own finding is that many of them also act as triggers, because they don't stimulate true satisfaction they trigger our body and mind into wanting more, more of them or more of something, that gap is still not filled.

The question is can I sit to eat for pleasure and community etc and truly enjoy myself with that if there are real foods in front of me? I think that yes is the answer here.  In particular I wonder if for someone like me for example the real missing element of satisfaction is that there isn't enough of the non biological reasons in my choices.  Maybe counter to the whole "only eat if you are hungry" mindset is that it leaves our minds, souls, and ultimately our body hungering for more - so maybe it should be "eat for your body and spirit".  I think I will have to think on this a bit, because this also brings up the whole emotional eating thing to my mind and I want to dwell on that a bit and see how I feel it fits into things in my mind.

Fresh Starts, Fresh Foods

Well it has once again been a while since I wrote on here and I definitely see a connection between what is going on with my body fat and what I am doing in this area of things - the mental arena. When I start slacking off and not really giving thoughtful consideration to what I am eating and not writing about it, reading about it etc I start sliding backwards into old patterns of eating stuff that is unhealthy.

Recently I revisited a site someone had told me about a long time ago, it is the 100 days of real food site.  It has given me something to work on and something to consider, and it is certainly more in line with my thinking about food than some of the stuff that is part and parcel of the whole WW thing.  While I love that program in many ways and believe it helped me to get much healthier, there are just things about it that always did sit poorly with me (i.e. no fat dairy is a power food but regular real dairy is all points heavy).  Things like that just made me cringe, that is not something I believe and certainly don't think is good for them to promote.  That is why I am moving to this new way of looking at it.  I am going to work on this real food challenge, and try to hit as much of it as I can.  The local sourced stuff will be a challenge this first while since it is winter in Saskatchewan - can't get much local produce right now.  But for next year we will be much better set since I am going to have grown a bunch of stuff and will freeze and store it so that will help keep it more local.

My plan is also to post on here at least once a week to talk about how it is going, food and exercise because that is certainly still part of my plan - since along with the other stuff my activity has also slipped quite a bit.  But I am going to get back to the 5K progress (by the way I am going to restart on week 5 where I left off) and I am going to see if I can find a once a week squash partner because that seems like it would be one of the best ways for me to get back to some great fitness that is also a tonne of fun.