Blog Archives
Goals for the New Year
Hello blog friends!! Wow, wonderful feedback on my last post about a poster at the gym that rubbed me the wrong way. It showed a woman standing on a scale, with the word “happy” displayed where the numbers normally are. Many of you agreed it was inappropriate, but I was surprised by how many saw it as reflecting a woman’s “happy weight.” That never occurred to me! Several others mentioned their weight (or “body size”) is one of the many factors in their personal happiness. Mish put it wonderfully by referring to happiness as an “onion.” Being happy is made up of many layers, and a person’s body-size can be one of those contributing layers. All very interesting stuff!! I encourage you to check it out :)
In other news, I’ve finally made it back to my apartment. I white knuckled it through the very windy drive home, but made it in one piece. Coming back to a snowed-over driveway was not fun though. Shovelling a car IN is much worse that shovelling it out :P
After four days in a row of getting up and going straight to the gym, my legs were telling me it was a rest day. I worked out five of the six days I was home – not bad! Makes up for all the meat pie and shortbread I ate… right…?
Breakfast was a toasted blueberry bagel with cream cheese. I usually eat laughing cow cheese in place of the regular stuff. And you know what? I like laughing cow better!
And my fat/protein…
A boiled egg.
I stopped by the grocery store before hitting the road as it was my only open window to do so until Saturday. So glad I did. Allowed me to throw together a rushed, yet delicious lunch before work this afternoon.
Sandwich with Italian Tofurkey slices, spinach dip, tomatoes and spinach with a side of black grapes.
Fuelled me through a busy shift at Starbucks. Found out today that my last shift is on Sunday! In fact, I only work tomorrow and Sunday, and that’s it!! Start my new job at the university bright and early Monday. Crazy.
I had Subway for supper. Don’t hate. But my evening snack involved probably the best trail mix ever.
This package from Emily was waiting for me when I got home. Thank you so much Emily!!!! Besides yummy almonds, seeds, chocolate chips and cranberries, it has homemade dried apples. Not just any apples, but ones from her own backyard!! LOVE it :D
I sprinkled it atop some yogurt + vanilla protein powder + cinnamon. Positively splendid :)
So my next few posts are going to be wrapping-up the past year while looking ahead to the new one. I decided to start with my “resolutions,” for no real reason whatsoever. Y’all know I’m big on setting goals for myself. Last year, my only two goals were to do a triathlon and get a job after graduating university. Both of which I did! :) This year I have five big ones I want to accomplish, all which I think are totally doable provided nothing big goes wrong.
Goals for the New Year
1. Run a half marathon
I tentatively have one planned for May 9th. But I don’t really care when it is – I just wanna do one this summer!! Also, let it be formally recorded that I will not set a time goal for this race. Finishing it is what matters.
2. Complete a duathlon.
Last year was “The Year of the Triathlon.” But to be honest, I don’t wanna swim in the lake again. There’s a small duathlon Moncton does every year that’s 5k run, 20k bike, 2.5k run. Stress-less and fun, just what I love ;)
3. Complete a metric century.
This past summer I got up to 65 km on my bike, and I just know I can push out 100k!! Not sure if I’ll do this in an event, with Chris/family, or on my own, but my bike will see 100 kilometres in one day this summer!
4. Get my first client as a personal trainer.
Okay, ideally I’d like to have more than one client. But I’m trying to be reasonable here ;) Basically, I just want to move forward with this personal training thing. Doesn’t matter if I get hired full-time at a gym, or just start doing it on the side, so long as I can help someone as a personal trainer!
5. LIVE life.
I feel like I spent 12 years in school “waiting” to graduate. Then spent four years “waiting” to finish university. Now I have nothing to wait for. I can do whatever I want! This year I want to experience life instead of watching it pass me by. I want to LIVE each day to the fullest. That doesn’t mean I’m taking off to trot the globe. I just don’t want to “survive” my days anymore. I want be an active character in them.
Question of the Day: Do you have any goals for the coming year??
Sooo tomorrow I’m doing a special "group exercise class medley.” It’s going to be 30 min spin, 30 min Body Attack, 30 min Body Pump, 30 min yoga. So two hours total!! I don’t actually expect it to be that gruelling, as the last two are pretty low intensity. But it will be a fun way to kick off the New Year!
I’ll also be scheduling a post tomorrow with my year in review. It will be scheduled, because I’m going to a house party to drink my arse off. But I’ll be sure it includes the awesome cookies I’m bringing to the part-ay with me! (Emily, you know that ones I’m talking about!) See ya then!!
Running, Races and More Ellipticals
Hiya! Totally loved all your favourite salad combos!!! Wow, some of you are creative. I was surprised by how many of you like fruit in your salad. Mainly because I don’t. Okay, that’s not entirely truthful. I like some fruits in salads, like oranges, peaches, apples. But I can’t do berries. Especially strawberries or raspberries. They belong in yogurt silly :P
Anywho, I almost lost last night’s salad running 5k in 27 minutes this morning. Yup,I actually did it!!
Distance: 5.01 km
Duration: 27:13
Avg Pace: 8:44 min/mi
Avg HR: no idea, my heart rate monitor was crapping out on me again
That run was so. hard. I’m pretty sure I hit my VO2 max. I had to stop and walk for 45 seconds on the last kilometre. I was wheezing and sputtering and basically on the brink of death. Of course, at that very moment, some jackass wearing nothing but shorts and a heart rate chest strap whizzed past me on the trail. I tried to yell obscenities at him, but it came out as a gurgle :P
At first I felt like a failure for having to stop and walk. But then I realized it was actually a success. I wanted to push myself to my limits today. I wanted to see just how fast I could go. I also learned a couple things:
1. I run best when I start out slow and sprint to the end. I tried to set a 9:00 pace for this whole run and it didn’t work for me. No shame in starting slow and pounding it out at the end.
2. I need to work on sustaining high heart rates for longer periods of time. I had to stop on that last kilometre because I was over 180 bpm much longer than I’m used to. I’m going to start doing interval work on the treadmill, to slowly increase my ability to push those higher heart rates.
Once I no longer thought I was going to throw up, my jar of almond butter threw up some oat bran.
1/2 cup dry oat bran cooked with 1 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp unflavoured soy protein powder, 3 dates, cinnamon. And obviously, whatever was left of the AB. These jar concoctions keep me full for-ever because there’s usually more nut butter than the one tablespoon I typically use. Funny how more calories = fuller longer ;)
Some other highlights of my day included a chilled Luna bar.
I put this in my fridge to keep it from melting in my sauna of an apartment. Holy moly. So good cold! Try it!!
Smoked salmon sandwich (SSS).
Smoked salmon, laughing cow cheese, capers, tomato, spinach. On my trusty reporter’s notebook.
Capers are my new BFF.
Homemade trail mix.
Pecans, roasted almonds, walnuts, roasted soy nuts, cashews, roasted peanuts, dried apricots, dried mulberries, box of raisins meant for children. Lovelovelove having pre-made baggies of trail mix on hand. So easy to throw in my purse when I’m rushing out the door.
I also got a couple great questions in the comments yesterday that I thought deserved a full answers in a post.
Lara wanted to know if I’m training for something specific right now. The answer to that is, yes. Kind of. There’s a 5k race on September 13 I’m thinking of doing purely because it’s being held later in the day, after I get off work. The race I’m technically “training” for is a 10k on September 20. That will be my longest running race distance and I’m really excited about it!
There’s also the CIBC Run For The Cure 5k happening on Oct. 4. This will be a big deal for me, seeing as I’ve walked it several times and I’ve always dreamed of actually running it. My mother had breast cancer when she was 22 (younger than me now!) so this race for the Canadian Breast Cancer Society has always meant a lot to me. Actually running it this year, will be, well, I can’t think of the words at the moment.
Another great question was from April who wanted to know the difference between the arc trainer and other ellipticals. This brought me to my old friend google, who had a lot to say about the matter!
First, I learned that there are three types of ellipticals:
Rear drive elliptical
Front drive elliptical
Center drive elliptical
The rear driven elliptical was first patented by Precor in 2004 and meant to simulate the motion of running and walking without the strain on your joints.
The front driven elliptical was developed shortly after (mostly because the Precor patent made it tough for other companies to copy it). It has the same circular motion as the rear drive, but imitates the stair climber a little more.
The center driven elliptical is the newest. Their most noticeable feature is that it keeps you centered, whereas the other two either have you leaning back or forward slightly.
Now, for the arc trainer, well according to Cybex, they’re a whole other game.
Cybex says it’s not even an elliptical, claiming it also burns more calories (which I always think is hooey, but a lot of people say they get higher heart rates on it). It has a “reverse arc” motion, that is supposed to simulate more natural movement, often compared to cross-country skiing. It’s also supposed to be easier on the knees, and you can adjust the height, changing how high your knees come up.
You can read more here:
http://www.arctrainer.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptical_trainer
http://www.fitness-equipment-source.com/elliptical-guide/front-vs-rear.htm
http://walking.about.com/od/treadmilling/a/elliptical_3.htm
So there you have it! To be honest, I never even noticed all these differences before!! Looking at this, I realize I love my Reebok Body Trec so much because it’s a front driven machine. For whatever reason, the rear drive ones just bug my knees. But now that I know I can adjust my knee height on the Cybex, I may give it another go (longer than two minutes this time? :P )
Phew. This was a long post. I think I’m subconsciously putting off packing. Time to get to it! Lator gators!!
Embracing my inner carnivore
So while I was blogging away this morning, I was not doing a vital part of my morning routine. Making my work eats! Blogging aaalllways takes me longer than I plan once you factor in re-reading and cleaning up all the text (I’m a broadcast journalist, I can’t help it!).
So come 8:50 am, it was time to leave my place, and I had no work eats to pack in my lovely new lunch bag. Enter emergency soup.
This is one of my roommie’s abandoned soups that didn’t make it to the food bank bag. I don’t eat a lot of soup, especially not canned soup. Firstly, I don’t like drinking my food! But also because of the sodium/saltiness and the sometimes sketchy ingredients I can’t pronounce. This however looked appetizing enough, so I kept it for mornings exactly like today’s!
Immediately, I noticed the nutrition info contains one of my biggest pet peeves. This 398 mL container is clearly marketed as a portion for one, It’s even designed to be popped in the microwave and eaten immediately. But the nutrition facts are for 250 mL!! Sheesh! I’m a liberal arts grad, I can’t do that kind of math!
Luckily, I had my handy-dandy accessories calculator at work. REAL nutrition facts are as follows:
Calories 121
Fat 4.7g
Sodium 748mg
Carbohydrates 16g
Fibre 3g
Sugar 3g
Protein 4.7g
That’s more like it :)
The soup itself was pretty decent tasting. Had a good amount of bulk to it, although way too much rice and not enough chicken. I still have three of these left. Next time I’ll bring an additional protein to add to it and dump out some of the broth.
Oh, and I obviously did not have just the soup. I grabbed an apple and two cheestrings to go with.
I also discovered some pre-portioned baggies of trail mix I did up and forgot about while I was cleaning out my cupboards yesterday. It was the perfect grab-and-go snack for later.
A sampling of what was in the goody bag. That random bumpy brown lump 12 o’clock to the walnut is some random dried berry I picked up at the Bulk Barn. At first, I thought it had the strangest texture, but they’ve really grown on me! I have yet to find a dried fruit I don’t like.
I continued my cow hating again for supper tonight with fresh hamburger I picked up at the local meat shop yesterday.
As someone who can barely cook chicken, I was in way over my head attempting to cook a hamburger on the stovetop. I really wish that someone told me bloody juices seep out of it when it’s cooking. I felt like I was killing it all over again…
On the bright side, my inner carnivore took over and I was salivating at the smell. I think I cooked it for maybe two minutes too long, but it otherwise turned out quite edible, and dare I say – good!
It was a pre-formed patty of just straight up lean ground beef. So most of the hard work was already done for me ;) I like the idea of cooking meat at home because I have control over what type of meat it is, where it comes from, and what type of oils it’s cooked in. I just ate it on top of a piece of toast. Since it was pre-formed, it was a little larger than it would be if I made it myself. So I opted to skip the bun to save room for a little green stuff on the side :)
I have to admit though, the red meat as not been nice to my digestive system. It’s like it’s working much harder to process all this foreign food. Or, like digesting a brick. Thus, tomorrow will be a cow-free day. Turkeys and soybeans beware though :P
More questions! Are you or have you ever been a vegetarian? Why or why not?
I gave up red meat when I was 13 years old. Then gave up all meat when I was 14. It wasn’t for ethical reasons. The thought of chowing down on dead animal bits just grossed me out. I started eating fish again a couple years ago, then added poultry this past Thanksgiving. This red meat thing is brand new to me, as of last month. It’s fun rediscovering the foods of my childhood. I really want to open myself up to all foods again, and don’t want to consider anything “off limits.” I just really wish red meat wasn’t so darn bloody! Ewewewew.
Okee, I’m off to make my lunch for tomorrow now so I don’t have to eat soup for lunch again! See ya tomorrow for a fun new lifting workout!!
