Yoga: DayONE

Well hello there.

If you know me, you know that I am the least flexible person, I have bad balance, a bad knee, and I'm clumsy. So what does a person like me try to do??

Yoga.

After I had injured my back a few months ago, a friend of mine made a suggestion of buying a simple yoga DVD and trying out yoga at home. Not only is yoga great for improving your balance, and flexibility, apparently it is great for building up you core which helps protect yourself from injuries.

Two weeks ago I bought a 2 disc DVD set at Costco for $14 (pretty darn cheap, right?) with the well planned intention of doing yoga in the mornings before the craziness of the day ensues. Well, two weeks have gone by and, by golly, I love my sleep and have a really hard time walking up even just 20 minutes earlier than my girls do. Then during the day I make excuses that conditions are never perfect enough for me to be able to do yoga (or exercise at all) and I put it off . . . until TODAY! I need to keep reminding myself that if I wait for all the stars to align (kids asleep/happily occupied, house clean, laundry folded, etc.) before I roll out my exercise mat and put a sports bra on, I am never gonna exercise! No more making excuses.

So today, I did a 20 minute yoga routine and it was lovely. Like I said, I am not flexible, AT ALL, and my balance is poor, but I still enjoyed doing the routine to the best of my ability. While trying to figure out all the breathing and going through some of the poses I thought "Wow. I really suck at this. It's going to be really cool to see how much better I'll get as I keep doing this."

This is me trying to touch my toes. As you can see I actually can't touch my toes, nor have I ever been able to. I remember back to gym class in elementary school feeling sad that I couldn't touch my toes when other girls could lay completely flat on their legs, wrapping the hands around their feet. While I may never get to be that flexible, my goal to to ONE DAY TOUCH MY TOES. Ha!

I hope hope that you get to try out yoga, too :)

I'm Back

Wow.

I mean . . . just . . . wow.

Has it really been more than 2 months?

Things got a little crazy over here and the days months just kind of flew past. Lot's of stuff has gone on  and I'm sure I could go on and on in a gargantuan post, but I'm going to choose to tell you what's been up in my life in this point form list:

November:
- Started part-time work at a mall kiosk for the pre-Christmas season; working 20 hours/week
- Went to see a doctor (finally) and was formally diagnosed with Depression. Yup.
- Started on anti-depression medication

December:
- Continued p/t work
- CHRISTMAS!
- Moved our family across the country. I'm a Haligonian again!

I am looking forward to getting back into a routine again. I don't know what that routine will look like. But I know that it will involve more yoga and running, and far less late-night bowls of cereal. Ha!

Anyways, I just wanted to let you know
I'm back.

Curse You, Chocolate!

I love Halloween. It's one of my favourite holidays. I loved it when I was little, and I love it now. And I LOVE seeing how much my girls love it, too. I loved watching them walk around in their little costumes I made for them, carrying their little buckets. Even though we only went around to a few houses, their buckets filled up quite quickly because there were several houses that were giving out FULL SIZED chocolate bars! At the end of the night, our girls came home with 10 large chocolate bars! Seriously!? I remember when I was a young trick or treater, and there would be that one house that would give out full-seized chocolate bars and you would go out of your way to make sure you made it to that house.

At the end of the night, I took all the big chocolate bars and stashed them away in the cupboard, separate from all the other halloween loot (which they still had a lot of). I don't know exactly why I did this. I should have just asked Tanner to take them an hide them somewhere in the house, so I couldn't find them, BECAUSE . . . .

. . . today I ate three of those chocolate bars. 

Please, excuse me while I hang my head in shame in a corner somewhere. Well, that's what I feel like doing. Actually, what I really feel like doing is drowning my sorrows in another chocolate bar, like somehow in some insane irrational way, that will make it all better.

But I won't. 

Instead, I am going to do the workout that Malorie planned for me to do. Even though I reeeeeeaaally don't feel like it. From what I've been told, when it comes to things like exercising, feeling like you don't want to do it usually means that it is even more important that you DO do it. 

So, I'm going to exercise, even though I don't want to.

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

Hit the Deck!

I've done this workout before and described it a bit in this blog post. 

All you need is a deck of cards! Spades are squats, Clubs are push-ups, Diamonds are sit-ups, and Hearts are burpees. Whatever the value on the card is how many reps you do of the exercise (and all face cards are 10 reps). So, if you flip over a 4 of clubs you do push-ups. If you flip the queen of hearts you do 10 burpees. Get it? It's a pretty intense workout, but it keeps you on your toes as you don't know what card you're going to flip next. By the time your done, you will have completed 85 reps of each exercise. If you keep the Jokers in the deck you can choose to do something extra. Last time I played this, I did 2 minutes of cardio. But I think I'll do a 30 second plank when I flip over a Joker.

Have fun!

New Hair!

In September, I reeeeeeaally wanted/needed a hair cut. I don't get hair cuts very often (like, once a year or even less than that), so when I do it's a big deal and I talk to Tanner about it first. I knew that this time I wanted to get my hair cut AND highlighted, which meant an expensive salon visit. Tanner told me to go for it, but only AFTER I lost my first 25lbs. Whaaa!? He is so cheeky. He could have just said yes, instead he made my yearly hair appointment into a reward. And I was excited and happy to wait and work to lose that first 25. 

At the beginning of October I was 5lbs away from the goal, so I phone my hair stylist and set up an appointment for the beginning of November, planning (and crossing my fingers) that I could keep my act together enough to reach my goal.

October 31st, I got a phone call from the salon reminding me of my appointment for the following day, and I had TOTALLY forgot about it!! I hadn't even weighed myself in a while and wasn't sure how close I was to being 225lbs. (October was an off month.) 

The morning of the appointment, I stepped onto the scale and saw that I was at 224.8lbs!

I did it! . . . without really knowing that I had, even. Ha!

And here is my new hair! I'm still getting used to being so blonde and surprise myself when I look in the mirror, but I love it :)

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

As many rounds as possible in 5 MINUTES:

- 10 push-ups

- 20 lat pull downs with resistance band (Demo video here)

Rest (sort of) for 2 minutes, BUT you have to complete 50 rope jumps in that 2 minutes.

Then as many rounds as possible in 5 MINUTES:

- 20 squats

- 20 back extensions

2 minute rest with 50 rope jumps

Then as many rounds as possible in 5 MINUTES:

- 10 burpees

- 10 seated toe tap downs (sorry, I couldn't find a good video of this one. One day I will be amazing enough to create my own demo videos.)

Finish off with 50 rope jumps!

This workout is fun and as intense as you make it depending on how fast you push yourself. And since it's all timed, you know your going to complete the workout in 20 minutes!

Have a great week everyone!!!

Take THAT Banana Split

I said no to this, today.

We had the missionaries over for supper,

and after the meal I headed into the kitchen to prepare dessert with my mother-in-law.

After making banana splits for the adults/kids, I started to mindlessly prepare my own.

Out of HABIT!

I stopped myself right away, and my MIL asked me if I was going to have one.

"Nope!"

TODAY'S WORKOUT!

2 Rounds for Time:

25 squats

25 sit-ups
25 push-ups

10 burpees

25 back extensions (demo video here)

50 tick rocks (25 with weight in right hand first and then switch to the left for another 25)

20 lunges

50 step-ups (25 for the right and 25 for the left)

25 bicep curls

25 overhead press (demo video here)

25 thrusters (demo video here)

Malorie called this "a little bit of everything". I'd sure say so!

The Weekend

I had a really great weekend that included a family trip to the big city. My husband, Tanner, won an award in a architectural design competition and to celebrate we went out to eat at his FAVOURITE restaurant, so he could eat his FAVOURITE burger. It was a really fun evening. Since the award Tanner won included a cash prize, we felt rich and indulged ourselves by ordering both an appetizer AND dessert. Gasp! We had a fun time and left feeling completely stuffed.

Even though my meal was "technically" a salad, it was fully loaded and probably had as many calories as Tanner's burger. (Okay, I just looked at their website because I was really curious what the actual calories were. My meal wasn't even close to Tanner's 1550 cal burger, but it was nearing 1000 calories. Ca-RAZY!) In the moment I was simply enjoying a dinner out with the fan-jam and having a good time, so I wasn't even thinking about calories. And, to be honest, it felt really good.

Last night, I thought that there was no way I could ever be totally perfect in my diet (who is?). I love food! I love to bake and cook. I love the sweet and the savoury. I love tasting new things. I love the feeling I get when I eat food that is rich with flavour. I am almost euphoric when it comes to eating good food (good tasting, that is).  So yeah, you can understand how difficult it is for me to restrict my diet some.

So, I'm going to try something new, and hopefully it works (TJ and Malorie do this, and it works pretty well for them). I will aim to eat perfectly during the week, while I allow myself more freedom to "cheat" on the weekends. This doesn't mean that I can go all crazy and eat whatever the heck I want. I'll keep it within reason, obviously. I'm going to try out this strategy for a few weeks and report back and let you how it goes. So far it has been going very well! ("So far" being a whole entire day. Ha!)

TODAY'S WORKOUT is split up into three parts:

FIRST do 3 rounds of:
- 10 pushups
- 20 bicep curls; I used a 15 lb weight
- 2 minutes of cardio (options: run, up/down stairs, stair switches, jump rope)

SECOND do 3 rounds of:
- 10 weighted goblet squats; I used a 15 lb weight (Demo video here.)
- 20 lunges (Demo video here.)
- 2 minutes of cardio

THIRD do 3 rounds of:
- 20 tick tocks with weight in left hand; I used a 15 lb weight, because we're buddy's now, you see. (Demo video here. Recognize that fitness model!?!? It's Mal!!)
- 20 tick rocks with weight in right hand
- 20 sit ups
- 2 minutes of cardio

This was a really awesome workout from Malorie. I loved it, and I hope that you create sometime today and try it out for yourself!

I Can't Control Everything

Currently, we are living with my in-laws while my husband completes a work term here. While I am so incredibly grateful for Tanner's parent's love and hospitality, I just have to say that it is so incredibly hard to eat healthy when there are bad food choices staring me right in the face.

My one HUGE weakness is cereal. Cereal is my ultimate go-to comfort food. For me, there is nothing so deliciously familiar as a bowl of fruit loops and cold milk. Which is why I NEVER BUY IT. I simply cannot trust myself to resist.

Even though I do contribute to grocery shopping and meals, I am not in control of everything that makes it's way into the cupboards and fridge. And because my in-laws are also grandparents, it makes them happy to buys fun cereals and treats for their grandkids.

Today, I ate two full bowls of sugary cereal.

*sigh*

When we move back to Halifax in December, it will be easier ( I hope).

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

For 30 minutes, do as many rounds as possible of:
- 6 burpees (demo video here. I don't clap at the top, but I do add a little hop.)
- 20 sit-ups
- 20 hip thrusts (demo video here. Start watching at 00:49. I am not using weights currently.)
- 20 back extensions
- 20 squats

I had to take little breaks to catch my breath, but then got right back at it! I also had to really push myself to make sure I completed the full 30 minutes and managed to make it through 7 rounds, plus 3 extra burpees. I had an awful headache near the middle of the workout that continued/worsened throughout the workout; a painful reminder that I have not been drinking enough water today (and maybe a little too much cereal. Oops.)

Have a great weekend everyone!!