Being Alone Makes You an Easy Target

So the header says something about exercise, food and weight loss …or something.

But more often than not I like to talk about life, or whatever likes to crawl into my brain and occupy space. And there’s a whole whack of space in there given the cells are being killed off every second of every day.

…

Yup, there went a few more.

But back to my point.

he he… I really wanted to type POIT! (I love you if you got the Pinky & the Brain reference)

I seem to be getting an abnormal amount of comments about the lack of a significant other in my life lately.

People seem genuinely shocked that there is no bf, no love interest and I haven’t been on anything resembling a date since the fall.

Yes, I said the fall.

See, my dance card is pretty full right now. Between work, Scouts, Running Room, the gym, and me being generally set in my ways, I’m not interested in rocking the boat. This ship is already weighted down enough, thank you very much and we’ve been trying to bail it out, not take on more water.

But I get your concern, really I do. I would just like to assure you that my fear of animals will prevent me from becoming a crazy cat lady, the list of activities above shows that I am indeed getting out and about and not shut in knitting crazy amounts of blankets, sweaters and scarves for my nieces and nephew and that I am taking fairly good care of myself as you can tell from my weekly weigh-ins (although, I freely admit that this coming Monday’s *may* be a gain as there will be copious amounts of cheese consumed this weekend as Sadie, WW and Abbey make appearances in town).

So thank you for inquiring about the well-being of my love-life, but please don’t make that shocked and disgusted look when I tell you I’m not dating. It’s all good. And please don’t give me the pity look shortly thereafter either. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being single, 30, living in a big city and NOT dating. I do  not have to slut it up every Friday night, get my drink on and find TO’s least attractive most eligible  probably married with two kids and lives in the ‘burbs bachelors. Been there. Done that. I’m good. REALLY.

Life is good. Life is grand.

Things come in time.

I have priorities.

I have a great family.

I have amazing friends.

I’m having a great time.

Wish you could be here.

Right! I write…

Lately I write really poorly, though.

My brain has turned to mush, much like the sidewalks of Toronto.

Every piece I turn in at work is fraught with spelling mistakes, crazy errors and things I should have caught. But clearly I’m either lazy or have lost one too many brain cells.

Evident again in the fact that today is Tuesday and I’m only getting around to talking about my weigh-in of 161.7.

Yeah, it’s something to be happy with, proud of, yadda yadda, but I’m slacking off on weekends, making up with it for a long run on a Sunday and probably dehydrating myself a tad bit into a big loss on a Monday. Maybe and maybe not. I can’t tell for sure.

I have gotten into that trap of putting full effort forward from Monday to Friday and giving up at Friday at 5:30 p.m.

Now, if I only I could do the opposite for my poor little brain and channel all of that energy into writing during work hours and then stop giving a damn on the weekend.

Oh.

What.

A.

Perfect.

World.

Speaking of not so perfect worlds, snow turning to rain and me running in it. Blech. Sam & I are taking the kids out for a run tonight. That’s right, folks. If you’re gearing up for Sporting Life and need a fun group to get you motivated, you need to come find us!

Whatchuwaitinforpunk?

So where did I leave off?

Right.

I asked everyone for an opinion and never came back with a decision. Since some of you have asked, here it is…

I WILL be running Around the Bay.

Although my training has been and will continue to be half-ass, I’ll run it. It won’t be my best race, who knows if it will be my worst, but it will be a challenge. A challenge I am willing to take.

I ran jogged crawled my way through 18km last Sunday, only managing to give myself a migraine and no real soreness, so I’ll sneak another long run in this weekend (sadly, at the expense of my Scout group’s winter camp and perhaps part of Podcamp Toronto) and that will have to get me through in terms of long distances as the 10km clinic that Sam & I are instructing starts next week (wheeee!).

So there you have it.

Decision made.

Now I’m officially scared.

Pray for me.

Let's Talk About TED

It will take about 20 mins of your time and Jamie Oliver may annoy the crap out of you, but it's worth the look.

He gives a great TED talk about fighting obesity in children and teaching them about REAL FOOD!

His wish is simple. He wants to "help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." Simple concepts. Simple initiative. Why aren't we doing it?

Watch. Absorb. Think. Hit me up with your thoughts in the comments.

GBU - The I heart Steve Jobs Edition

Good - I have a new laptop! Wheee! It's a shiny new MacBook. OOOOH! AHHHH!
Bad - Said new MacBook came as a result of my old laptop no longer recognizing its AC adapter. It wasn't a case of the AC adapter no longer working. No, no. Vista, the bane of my existence, just decided to be the biznatch that it is and just no longer play nice with it.
Ugly - have you seen the price tag that comes with Apple products. Sweet baby Jesus!

Good - Fun new toy! WHEEEE!
Bad - Oh! Wait. All of my files, programs, documents, and essentially MY LIFE are on that computer over there that WON'T BOOT UP. MOTHER BIRD!
Ugly - Me. With a screw driver. Watch out.

Good - I can use my Microsoft mouse? For reals? and still right click? Someone is getting a huge kiss for this.
Bad - SAY WHAT?! I have lost my ability to use Windows Live Writer, people. GET ME A DRINK!
Ugly - This blog post. Avert your eyes. THE HORROR!

Good - I am no longer tethered to a power cord. Look at me blogging from the kitchen.
Bad - Wait. THAT is bad.
Ugly - Yeah, this is going to get that way super fast. Can I just saranwrap this bad boy? Is that safe? Do they sell such beasts?

Good - The learning curve is short given my history with these purdy little things in my work history.
Bad - My propensity to use CTRL + C, V, X, B, I, etc. in my daily life that will be HARD to break
Ugly - I have done it at least a dozen times in writing this post, making it twice as long to publish. Sigh.

But it's a happy sigh! :)

And in other news....

163.5 :)

Things are good.

And happy family day. Give yours a big squeeze today :)

What Would You Do?

So say you agree to do a 30km race with a friend, a race that is a lot longer than any run that you’ve done before and that you haven’t really been training for that faithfully…yet.

Say your friendly sends you a message on facebook last night telling you that she has a pretty serious injury and now can’t run for a month, effectively pulling her out of the race.

Would you still run the race?

Do you still challenge yourself even though the only reason you were running it is gone?

Do you go and push your limits now instead of taking it easy and being there for someone else?

Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions?

 

Put yourself in my stinky running shoes and hit me up in the comments.

 

Oh, and if you’re looking for an entry to the SOLD OUT Around the Bay Road Race, email me. I can hook you up with Amy’s bib.

It’s all your fault, dad!

 

I know you can’t get enough of him and he loves when his cute little mug appears here so really this is just an excuse to post a cute photo of him :)

But there is a point, I swear!

And I don’t blame him…much.

Apparently both my parents can now shoulder the blame should I slave away at the gym time and time again and never see results.

See, it’s not my diet and exercise regime, it’s my genetics.

This sounds like conversations I’ve overheard as my family has been strapping on the ol’ feedbag at an all-you-can-eat before…

Yeah, we’re genetically predisposed to be the way we are to a certain extent and no matter how much we huff and puff, we can’t blow the fat away, but really? Dad, I hate to break it to you, but you potentially gave me the “unfitness gene.”

I would like you to explain why you gave it to me and not Jainey, though. Are you playing favourites?

The whole thing makes my brain hurt, really.

You can try to decipher it for yourself here.

We can blame him for other things, that is for sure.

Like my cuteness. I mean, look at the man! How can you not want to put him in your pocket and just pinch his cheeks all day long?

♥

GBU – All filler, gut killer edition

Good – I solved my own rapid weight loss dilemma. I kick le ass!
Bad – I stopped counting POINTS and exercising for most of the week. That sure fixed my wagon.
Ugly – Up .4lbs. Not as ugly as I thought but it works for me.

Good – Train trip to Ottawa. WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Bad – Have you taken the cattle car to the nation’s crapital with the unwashed before?
Ugly – Thanks to the spotty wifi provided by VIA Rail, I did not kill the obnoxious family seated behind me and they arrived safely at our destination where I hope they purchased the espresso maker, beaver tails and met up with Uncle Jimmy, all of which they spoke LOUDLY and REPEATEDLY about during the four and half hour train ride.

Good – Sadie, Amy, Blingy, Nanookie, Lisa, Rebound, working out, all-you-can-eat sushi, byward market, CHEEEEEESE, teabags, bob barker, measuring tapes, wal-mart and craziness
Bad – Cramming all of that into less than 48 hours.
Ugly – Sore back. Sore ass. Sore head. Bloated. Tired. Hot. Mess.

Good – Home sweet home. My family. My nephew. Super bowl. My sister-in-law’s lasagna.
Bad – Don’t you think you consumed enough cheese already, miss mouse?
Ugly – Yes, I believe your stomach is saying YES, you did! UGH.

Good – Sitting around playing Wii with friends and family.
Bad – Your poor daddy learning how to play Wii and not having your Flip cam within reach to document yet another first for dear ol dad.
Ugly – When dad kicks your butt at Mario Kart and you own a damn Wii.

Good – MY BED!
Bad – The alarm clock
Ugly – My stomach is still protesting the weekend of cheese. Remind me why I love thee so and am nicknamed mouse?

An Ode to Normie

My furry boyfriend,

Even though I am afraid of you,

Your slobbery little face,

And your waggly bum,

Make me smile.

And the fact that your parents make some damn fine food is pretty effin’ sweet too.

I will keep you, my dear. And Sam & Jeff, too ;)

WHOA, NELLY!

Er, I’m 164.7 this morning.

And that is only because I ate a mother lovin’ brownie last night because I saw an even lower number on my scale yesterday and I still had WAY TOO MANY APs to eat. I just couldn’t eat them all yesterday. I am a failure.

But that’s the number I saw this morning.

Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.

That’s 9.2lbs lost this month.

That is 2.3lbs per week.

That is too much and too fast.

I know I’m flippity flopping back and forth on this, being happy and sad about what numbers I’m seeing and frankly I blame the Biggest Loser (because I need a scapegoat for something because *I* am fabulous and have done NOTHING wrong here *beams* and linking to them will probably drive traffic to my site – wahooooooooo!). I DO NOT need to see huge losses every week. I DO need to see losses UNDER 2lbs per week. This rate of weight loss is not sustainable and isn’t healthy for me. Period. Full Stop.

I don’t have much to lose at this point. I really need to stop bitching about my weight. I only have 10lbs to lose until I’m in a healthy weight range for my body and 20lbs until my goal weight again. I haven’t set a deadline for it (which is a good thing) but the X-weighted challenge runs until the summer. So that’s like five months to lose 10-20lbs.

So let’s stop to smell the roses, shall we?

*breathe in/breathe out*

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! EXCELLENT.

But for realsies, let’s pretend that I did DESPERATELY need your help & advice about slowing my weight loss the eff down, because it does need to simmah, what would you tell someone? You’re a tried and true WW’er and you know your stuff, what words of wisdom would you impart on a gal pal? Or maybe you just count your calories or follow a low carb/high protein plan, what would you do to keep your weight loss in check but still maintain a steady loss?

To give you some background, these are the mainstays in my diet for the last month:

• eggs and whole wheat toast
• almond butter and oats
• mexican rice casserole
• shepherd’s pie
• turkey chili
• tuna & whole wheat couscous
• salmon and brown rice
• whole wheat pasta with lean ground beef
• BUTTLOADS of veggies (broccoli, zucchini, asparagus, peas, carrots, mushrooms, etc.)
• Yes, even fruit. An apple every stinkin’ day. Sigh.
• CHEEEEEEEEEEESE
• And I’ve gone out for Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, Italian and brunch a few times :P

PLUS, the past few weeks I’ve earned anywhere between 28 and 38 APs running and weight training.

Now, dispense with the advice!!!

please and thanks :)