KOOZA & Month Update

I forgot to mention yesterday that it was my baby’s 30^th birthday. When I think of how old she has gotten, it just reminds me of how old I am J People at work scoff and just tell me I was a baby myself when I had her. And Yeah, I think they are right – 19 is still a baby.

This morning reading the comments from yesterday and MizFits “You are officially MINDFULLY eating”. I had to giggle because last night for dinner I was mindlessly eating there was no mindful about it J. I was not hungry but we were going out for her BD dinner and at a wonderful steak house and I just had to eat a steak and lobster. I ate half the lobster and half the steak and a few forkfuls of the garlic mashed potatoes but it was that pre dinner sitting around talking with a bowl of hand-cut, deep fried potato chips sitting there right in front of my face. I mean what I could I do, I had to help make them disappear so that they wouldn’t be there to temp me. Then there was that tiny piece of cheesy garlic bread – now that was good but I only had that one small piece. And through all of this, I truly wasn’t hungry but I ate it. I don’t know what’s up with that…..

Then after the dinner I took her to KOOZA – a Cirque Du Soleil show. She has never been and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her sitting on the edge of her seat watching the acrobats above us. We had EXCELLENT seats – third row from the stage. So there was a lot of looking up. And WOW are those people strong, agile and very fluid. There were three girls that could literally turn themselves inside out. I have never seen flexibility like that. And one girl could move hula-hoops like it was nothing. That girl could shake her booty. It was amazing to watch all that strength. If you go to this page on the website, you can watch the some of the acts – the Contortion tab is the pretzel girls. It was a late night but well worth it.

Now back to today with mindful eating thoughts ! I am back on track.

365 to 50 Update:

Today marks the end of the month and 28 days ago, I took my measurements and marked down my weight. I’m planning on updating my numbers once a month. So according to my spreadsheet here are the results:

ü  I am down .1 lbs (whooptydo)

ü  I am down 5.1 inches (that’s better)

ü  I tracked 182752 steps (this one is not an entire months’ worth and did include 3 days of walking so really isn’t an accurate number yet)

ü  I tracked 2357 minutes of exercising (that’s 39.28 hours) –not bad. (I did not workout 5 days in the last 28 days).

So all-in-all I am pleased with this month’s progress as my intent was really to get some ingrained habits happening and moving my body in some sort every day was my top priority. The 5 days I missed were intentional as it was 2 days before my big walk (resting up) and the day after (recuperating). The other two days I just missed doing something. I’m still pleased as it is a work in progress and not an attempt at perfection.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

Not hungry?

Yesterday I wasn’t hungry. It was very strange. I drank my shake at 8:30 (I got up at 5) and at 11:30 I realized what time it was and that I hadn’t had my morning fruit, but I wasn’t hungry. At 12:30 I had my bean salad, a HB egg and a small cup of yoghurt…. But I still wasn’t hungry. I just ate it because I knew I should. Like Helen mentioned a couple of weeks ago here and here again, what do you do when you aren’t hungry but you know later on you are going to need that food to sustain your physical activity? That’s the only reason I ate my lunch and mid afternoon snack. Because I was meeting with my personal training and doing some strength training and cardio. Because I knew I was spending 2 hours there and didn’t want to crash. Even when I got home I wasn’t hungry and that’s not normal for me. After working out for so long, I’m usually ravenous. But all I wanted was soup and a piece of whole grain toast. So that’s what I had and I felt satisfied.  Then I took Ms. Kate out for a nice evening walk and felt energized and not tired like I normally do.

So having said the above, regardless of not being physically hungry yesterday, I think what you eat is important. Salads with a lean protein source is a great weight loss meal but they are mostly water and do they sustain you for hours on end. At least on a normal hungry day they don’t for me. I find I’m hungry within a couple of hours especially if there is a lot of physical activity involved later. But yesterday’s bean salad is a different story. Granted I wasn’t hungry to start with but I found it sustained me for the rest of the afternoon. Legumes digest very slowly and are a pretty simple meal. And my evening soup was a roasted red lentil and eggplant soup that I found in a Natural food store and there is not a single chemical in it. Everything is organic and natural. They come in little plastic packages and last week I tried the roasted butternut squash. Anyway, that soup, with the piece of toast, really satisfied me. I ate what I wanted and did not want anything else.

Is that my intuitiveness finally kicking in? I’m finding I’m craving good stuff lately more than the crappy stuff and that is a really good thing. Sometimes after eating clean, I start craving salty or greasy foods. I think with including good fats in my diet has lessened the greasy cravings, and something else is satisfying the salt craving. And I have to mention the once weekly night out social date, I usually can’t wait for that night so I can have my beer. But so far this week, the anticipation isn’t there. I may be finally leveling my body out chemically by removing all those artificial chemicals which trigger those cravings. I think this warrants more investigation….

I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

p.s.,  I copied this directly from Steve’s webpage, so read it and join in the fun!

Speaking of BOOYAH!  Do you realize we are up to 90 Hot 100 participants!  Did you read that?  90!  If you count me, and I certainly think you can, that is 91!  We are just nine away from 100 hotties in the Hot 100!  Listen up, we have got to get this word out and find those last nine!  If you know anyone on the fence, ask them, coax them, motivate them, heck even drag them.  Get them off the fence and into the Hot 100!  Oh, and don’t forget that prize three is for the most motivating hottie.  Be sure you are out encouraging others.  I need it, you need it, we all need it.  Remember, a rising tide raises all ships!

 

p.s.s. After re-reading my post before sending (it is 10:00 a.m.), I am looking at the clock and thinking that it is time for my 10:00 snack. But I’m only thinking it, my body isn’t telling me it is hungry. My MIND is looking at the clock and telling me what I should be doing. So I drank some water, am hitting send and going away from my desk to focus on something else for a minute or two. Will see how this works.

Oh what to eat... ?

Mr. Sandra came home last night and the air was thick with stress. That man needs to really learn to relax. Of course, I was re-organizing all weekend, that equals NOTHING is the same J He had to actually look for something back where it belonged instead of just sitting out in the open. Even Ms. Kate is having an issue because I moved her kennel and she has been trained that when she comes inside the house, she must go straight to her kennel. I moved it to right beside the door and she goes right past it to where it used to be, then turns and looks at me, then the light turns on and she goes to her new location. We trained her this way because if she comes in from outside all muddy and wet, it stays limited to her kennel and not all over my house. She will quickly get used to it, and so will Mr. Sandra.

Back to Mr. Sandra – he was tired after four days of goose hunting and I suspect the next 3 days he will be pretty sedentary at home. But after that, I’m going to be kicking his butt and get him moving. He has asked me for help and is actually serious this time. I know in the past I’ve mentioned he has asked, has talked but has not shown any action. This time the DR. made it very clear to him that he MUST do something now. He has high blood sugar and borderline high cholesterol and with care and activity, it can be reversed before it becomes too serious where medication is required. He needs to move and make better choices with his food. Unfortunately he doesn’t know how to eat good without me directing him…. More or less.

My plan on the weekend was to organize a menu of sorts for him as well as me. Something he could help with, by preparing during the day, leftovers for the next day, etc. But I spent more time organizing my home and didn’t get time to organize the food area. I’ve got a ton of good cookbooks so I have to just go through them and find some good ones that he can create during the day. It’s so important for us to be ready for the evening meal or else it’s too easy to just grab whatever is easy. Easy = packaged sometimes.

Following a good clean diet is easy enough if you think about it, nothing white, whole grains, pasta, vegetables, fruit and lean protein. Easy right. Sort of… all of it takes planning and preparation as far as I’m concerned. Cleaning and actually eating the vegetables (no wasting anymore), cleaning and eating the fruit (again no wasting), pre-cooking rice/pasta, lean meats for lunches or for nights that dinner isn’t prepared ahead of time. It all takes time and I need to get back to the Sunday prep days. I have always done it for my lunches but now I need to broaden that to his lunches and possible dinners as well. I need to get organized… J

Enuf chattering for today! I hope you have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

p.s., Pushup Challenge – I have seen a TON of folks doing this over the last couple of years.  I have it as a program (free) on my iTouch. You can read all about here at 100 Pushups. There is also 200 Situps, 200 Squats, 25 or 50 Pullups (ha like I’ll ever be able to do that one)…..

Weekend Re-cap

Well I’ve had a busy couple of days. I have to admit I like it when I get the house to myself. I have gotten a lot of organizing done and yard work and exercising in. I even took today off because I was in the mood to keep the movement going.

Saturday I did some canning in the morning, then took Ms. Kate for a 70 minute walk. I have missed walking as I haven’t done a whole lot of it since the Kidney March because we have had such yucky weather. But Saturday it was so nice out, we had to hit the paths.

Then when I got home I did Jillian Michael’s Shred-It with Weights and since it was my first try I only used the 5lb kettleblock. Some parts of the DVD I found easy so I think I would need a heavier kettleblock and then some other parts I found a bit harder. But all in all, I did enjoy it. I spent an additional 10 minutes of stretching after because my legs are still tight from… well they are just tight from everything.

Then my daughter and I cut the grass and cleaned up the backyard. My little sqaure foot garden didn’t turn out all that well this year and it might have been the weather (crappy) or it might have been the soil. It might have been too rich or something like that. It was the first year and hopefully next year it will turn out better. I have left the beets in because they can weather colder stuff so they are good for another week or so.

Yesterday I walked on the treadclimber in its treadmill mode. When it is set like that I think the incline is about 12% but I don’t know for sure. I think I will move the treadmill at the gym up to 12 tomorrow and walk to see if it feels the same. Problem with the Treadclimber is that since it is two separate tracks I have to walk with my feet slightly apart – not my normal stance and it affects my hip/legs. Saturdays Kettlebell workout did sufficiently work my hamstrings as they were sore on Sunday and walking at that incline, with my legs slightly apart- well let’s just say it still hurts :) Again afterwards, I did a ton of stretching and threw in some ab and upperbody work into the throw.

I think I might do the 100 pushup challenge. I HATE pushups so what better way to challenge myself than to do what one hates. I hate them because they are so hard…. enuf said

Today I’ve continued to clean/organize my house. I’m de-cluttering and moving things around. Having an organized home helps me with keeping my life organized.

For exercise, I did a 30 minute interval walk on the treadmill. It was good and a challenge. Something I am going to have to keep doing. I think it will help me speed up in my walking and maybe eventually I’ll feel like running again :). And was I ever sweating after that. Did more stretching and some abs.

Later this afternoon I’m taking Ms. Kate on the same walk we did the other day (only opposite direction) and wearing my Garmin as I want to know how far we walked. I like numbers….

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and have a fantastic week to come.

ttyl

Sandra

Look she is growing up :)

Ramping it up a Notch!

Remember I said I wanted to ramp up my exercising a notch or two and I was going to tell my personal trainer that? Well she took me seriously. Tuesday was our leg day and I still can’t walk right. Some folks that see me think it is from walking 3 days and all I can do is scoff that I didn’t feel this bad after walking then. It’s that kind of walk where you feel like you have a 2x4 stuck up your behind and sitting down is a challenge. It’s an issue when you have a sit-down job and only get up once in a while to venture to the kitchen to get water and then off to empty it later. It only looks funny for the first 100 feet or so until my muscles warm up but I seem to always run into someone that has to have a laugh at me J

She had me doing one legged squats, step ups, side lunges and this other thing I don’t know how to describe. But I did 4 sets of them and almost that same night I KNEW I was going to be  in trouble. I’m a 24hr DOM kind of gal but when you start feeling it within hours, you KNOW you had a great workout. I’m just hoping it works itself out by tomorrow because I’m getting me some JM Shred-it with Weights workout in.

Last night PT and I did upper body but I don’t think I will be as sore so JM and the Kettlebell should be fine.

And speaking of Kettlebells, I went out and bought a set that is adjustable from 5-20lbs – Powerblock Kettleblock. Why I keep supplying my home with workout equipment when I’m paying for a gym is a question I am frequently asked. I like to workout at home on the weekends. And if I have this stuff, maybe Mr. Sandra will start using them? Anyway, since I am short on space (because of all the other equipment I have),  I thought adjustable would be good because it is one unit rather than several all over my basement. Same concept as to why I have the Bowflex SelectTech Dumbells.

I have the next 4 days alone with Ms. Katie. It’s hunting season again (birds) and Mr. Sandra and several other men are going goose hunting over the weekend and they aren’t bringing Ms. Kate. She is an upland bird dog and not a water dog and Geese are too big for her to retrieve. And after last weekend when she got so sick, I don’t want her to go. She only just recovered yesterday (was back to normal) so for three days she laid around the house recovering and not eating much. I realize she is bred for hunting and that is her job but she is still my baby.

We are finally going to have some nice weather, figures now that it is fall that summer is coming, so I’m looking forward to getting into my yard and cleaning it up and putting stuff away for the winter. Between that, walking Kate and exercising, I should be just plum tired by Sunday night. I’m one of those people who doesn’t know how to take a day off…. Drives Mr. Sandra nuts. “Can’t you just sit and relax?”… Nope, boring…..    

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend and hopefully I will get an hour to two to get caught up on some of your blogs!

Ttyl

Sandra

Hot 100 2010

Wow, 100 days left of the year and Steve is putting on another HOT 100 starting today! I remember signing up for this last year and having so much fun with it and meeting tons of wonderful people here in blogland.

As per most challenges there are rules and part of this one is to list at least 3 goals you want to accomplish. Usually I add a weight loss goal - one that lists lbs lost. I am not doing that this time because the pounds lost aren't as important to me right now as getting my mind and body into the right place.

I've created a page with my goals listed so that I can easily review them (my sidebar is cluttered enough). So based on them, I will being doing an update every week on what I am doing to accomplish those goals. This will also help me in accomplishing my organization goal. Keeping a tab on them helps me keep it going.

So here they are for my opening Hot 100 post:

1. Nuture my Body, Soul & Mind
• I really need to spend some Me, Myself & I time every day and focus on grounding myself. When I am not grounded I find I swing all over the place. I'm unorganized, stressed, a little more negative towards myself and possibly judgemental to others.
2. Put 110% effort into my 3x strength training sessions, and 3x Interval cardio sessions
• In the last 2 years, I do not feel like I have worked at my hardest during my workouts. I've just been going through the motions. Now somedays my body aches, and my muscles are sore but I still feel I could do more. I am going to try to do my absolute best without burning myself out. And in order to not burn out, I need to make sure that goal #1 is a priority.
3. 90/10 rule for eating.
• 
  
  90% of the time I want to eat organic, clean, healthy meals. As few chemicals as possible. 10% (or less) of the time will be my leeway. Those times where either the supply isn't available or I just need a "free" meal. I loathe to grant myself a free "DAY" as I can quickly undo everything I have gained during the previous six days of eating 100% on track.
4. Track at least 10,000 steps every single day.
• Everyday is not too much of a stretch. Even on easy days where all I want to do is walk, then I will walk 10,000 steps worth. That's only about an hour of walking really. It can be done.
5. 
   
   Stop being wasteful.
• Sometimes at the end of the week I throw out more bad fruit and veggies than I should be. I need to learn to only buy what I need for a couple of days and then make sure I eat it. I hate waste and I sometimes over-buy a product and it goes bad by the time I eat it. I live close to a groccery store so I should only buy a couple of days worth.

I hope everyone has  FANTASIC day!

ttyl
Sandra

Hot, Dizzy, and Ouch

I attended Bikram Hot Yoga last night and plan on starting up my regular practice again. I had stopped for the summer because it was more important for me to spend those evenings walking than it was doing Yoga. Physically my body could have continued to benefit from the Yoga but my life couldn’t handle doing both. Hot Yoga tires me out a bit… at least at first and I really needed to up my walking hours. Even though we didn’t have much of a summer here, I guess I just didn’t want to spend it in a hot room.

When I started it last January 1^st, I struggled with the heat but after a few sessions it became easier. I also struggled with a lot of the poses that use your hip flexibility – of which I have none. But after a couple of months it was getting much better and I was experiencing some personal bests. However there are some positions I just couldn’t get in to.

Over the summer I attended it here and there but not consistent. I went last Wednesday as I really needed the heat and the stretching of the muscles but I had a hard time with the hip opening ones because my hips are so freakin tight. Last night, I went again and it was so hot in that room that I really struggled. I mean really struggled. I ended up getting dizzy quite a few times and had to sit down through half of some of the poses and again the hip opening ones were very difficult. Now this dizzy thing is normal for me if it gets too hot but only in the beginning. Once I start going regularly again, then I can handle it much better.

I think, as a challenge to myself, some of the poses that I really struggle with, I’m going to try to make it a goal that by the end of the year that I can at least do the pose. I can’t say fully do the pose because that may take years of practice to do it perfectly right but at least get into the pose in the beginning phase. There are two that I just can’t do at all and struggle immensely. The rest I can get into, maybe not fully, but as I progress I do get into each of them further and further. But two I can’t do at all. By January 1^st, I want to be able to at least get into them.

And since the summer and camping and the 3 day March is over, what better time than now to start going 3x a week again.

 

When I got home last night after Yoga, my Massage Terrorist came over and worked deeply on my hips and my calves. Holy Freakin Pain I say…. Man those massages hurt. She fits the term “terrorist” quite good I’d say. But it does me the world of good and loosens some of these really tight muscles of mine. Tonight I have a session with my personal trainer and last week I told her enough was enough, no more pussy footing around and so she is going to work my ass off tonight – literally…. I have to just make sure that in order to keep these muscles from tightening up so much then I have to roll every night and work out the kinks. Then maybe I can have a normal massage that doesn’t hurt so much J

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC Day!!

Ttyl

Sandra

Monday Musings

·         I’m glad everyone enjoyed my 3-Day March review. I enjoyed sharing how it went for Kim and I. As I mentioned over and over again during those reviews, it was a life changing experience for me and has managed to give me a whole lot of motivation to get healthier.  Walking along Kidney Dialysis recipients, organ donors, or organ recipients, well it just opened up my eyes. They were all fantastic people with such a drive to live and be healthy!

 

·         Day 17 of my 365 2 50 campaign and I’ve taken three days off from exercising in the last 17 days. The first two were just before my 3 day walk because I was just too busy running around getting everything purchased and packed, and the day after my 3 day walk because my body needed the rest. All perfectly required and needed. However, my goal for the next 348 days is to make the exercising I do do, worth every minute I spend burning calories. I want to push myself to as close to my limit as I can without burning myself out. So my goal is to do Hot Yoga again every other day, and work my butt off the other 3 days – one day will be just an easy walk to recover from the other 6.

 

·         I’m also in the process of organizing my house. Since I spend the majority of the summer away either on vacation or away camping for the weekends, my house became an unorganized mess as far as I’m concerned. For me, that also means my eating is unorganized and other than my after work workouts that are scheduled with my PT or times I book for Yoga, my home exercising doesn’t get done much either (haven’t been getting up at 4 for the last 2 months…. 5 is early enough don’t ya think?). So I’ve slowly started to get rid of the “Junk” that has been cluttering up my place. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that bad but I’ve been feeling crowded at home lately and want to open it up a bit and get rid of some stuff. So far I have 3 bags of coats and clothing to give away to Goodwill.

 

·         I am so behind on reading blogs it’s not funny. I’m trying really hard to read as many as I can but I am so busy at work it is hard to find the time to read and comment. So if you aren’t getting any comments from me, it isn’t necessarily that I’m not reading, I just haven’t time to comment much. I’m sorry and hope to be a better blogger friend soon.

 

·         Hunting season has started here for Mr. Sandra and little Miss Kate and last night after they spent three days in the rain hunting ducks, I had a couple of really tired folks at my house (he took Son #1 and Son #2 with him). I don’t mind hunting season because it gives me a chance to do point number 4 above, and get myself organized. What I don’t like about hunting season is what it does to my little Katie. She is plumb worn out and even though she is a water dog, she HATES the rain and just spent the last three days hunkering down in it. I think she has an ear infection now and have asked Mr. Sandra to keep an eye on her today as I don’t want her suffering at all. And she is licking under her legs (arm pit area) quite a bit and I think after being wet for so long (and probably cold) she has a rash of some sort on her skin. Those ponds can’t be good for them either. She won’t let me look at it as it bugs her that much and again, if it keeps up today, he will be taking her to the vet to get her checked out. Since we have had such lousy weather around here, it is time to invest in a neoprene vest for her to help keep her warm at least (if not dry).

 

·         Going to Hot Yoga this afternoon after work and then my massage terrorist is coming over at 6:30 to help me work out the tightness in my calves and hips. I figure I will be nice and warmed up by the time she gets there that she may be able to dig deeper. It is NOT a relaxing massage. When she works on my calves, it hurts so much I really have to focus on relaxing. Because it hurts, I tense up and that makes it more painful. It’s a viscous circle J  I have been experiencing a cramp type pain my ankle for some months now and we now know it is from a particularly tight knot in my calf. It needs work.

 

·         I bought yet again another Jillian Michaels DVD – this one is called Shred-It With Weights. She uses Kettle balls and yesterday afternoon I watched it while I was organizing my living room (I like to watch video’s first before I actually try them). Again in Jillian style, it looks challenging and I’m looking forward to giving it a try. I will let you know how it goes.

 

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

 

March - Day Three

I had a pretty restful sleep - considering my bed was one inch thick. I was definately warm enough as I had a pretty good sleeping bag and with two bodies in those small tents, there was enough heat to keep you warm inside your sleeping bag. Outside of it was a different story. I had woken up at around 4 which is when they turn on the big lights for the crew to start getting breakfast ready and although it wasn't in our tent area, it still woke me up. I brought my clothes into my sleeping bag with me to warm them up and then I got dressed that way. When I got out of the tent at around 5:30 - there was frost everywhere.

We packed up the rest of our stuff into our bags as quitely as possible because not everyone was up yet. They turn on the tent area floodlights around 6:00 a.m. Once we were packed up, we threw our packs into this big truck as they would be transported to our pickup place at the finish line. Then we headed for breakfast (the picture is the dining tent). Today we could take our time because we didn't actually get to start walking until 8:00 a.m. so we had plenty of time to waste.

Which had its good points and its bad points. Bad is that the grass was pretty wet and since we were walking around trying to keep warm, our feet got pretty wet. This isn't good when you are about to walk for the day. One of our morning rituals was to coat our feet with vaseline and baby powder. Worked wonders for me in keeping my feet in pretty good shape. Good thing about waiting around is that Uncle Tom decided to show up when we were about to leave and although my pack was stored, I was able to hop on the truck and get what I needed for the day. Had we been out on the road when he showed up, I would not have been a happy camper. (Sorry for the extra info guys).

So we headed out at 8:00 a.m. and our first pit stop had 7 porta potties - they finally had it right. It was a very nice day, cool but you could tell it was going to warm up as it looked like the sun might actually shine a bit that day. And it did....

We turned off the main highway and headed up this secondary road. From the starting point, all it looked like was one long hill. And quite frankly it was. Mr. Sandra figures we climbed 800-1000 feet that day. From the picture in the right, you can see the end of the road (or rather where we started to walk). It was a steady climb for most of it.

Just before one rest stop, there were 4 young kids standing there cheering everyone on. They were singing cheer leading type songs, and dancing and slapping our hands. And then there is the other direction, there was one crazy cyclist that wouldn't move over and brushed by everyone on our side of the white line. I was so close to sticking out my elbow just to knock some sense into him... but I didn't. Bad enough I thought about it :)

I walked right to the end (Kim took a break for the last 6Km). I ached a bit more than normal this day due to Mr. Tom showing up but I was putting one foot in front of the other with visions of my own bed in my mind :). When I finally got to the top of the hill and started to walk into the city, the feeling of accomplishment was very strong. I was darn proud of myself. I was even walking faster, with more purpose and I enjoyed my final walk in.

Kim met me at the last pit stop and we walked to the finish line together. They had a huge half circle of red and black balloons and everyone cheered everyone in. It was great!

They then handed new red tee shirts to everyone and the plan was for us to walk the last 1.5 K down a winding road to the bottom of the ski hill to where all our friends and family were waiting. It was a sea of red.

At the bottom of the hill, Mr. Sandra was there to greet me and the look on his face said it all. He was very proud of us as well.

They had a closing ceremony in a large tent where they talked about how this march started, why it started and showed some highlights of the walk. We had a camera man following us around for three days and he put together a quick slideshow. I can't wait to see it online. There was a lot of standing applauses from us walkers for the crew and the medical staff and for each other. The speaker made laughing comments on how funny it was to watch 300 people stand up over and over again after walking for three days. Let me tell ya, it wasn't easy :)

It was one of the hardest things I have done in a very long time (if not the hardest), but not the last. I now realize how much I can push my body and how little effort I have shown in getting fit up to this point. I am a LOT stronger than I was giving myself credit for.  I also know that my mind can play a lot of games with me and I am stronger than it is. I was able to not listen to that voice that wanted to give up and push through it and felt better because if it. IAM Strong!

On Monday I was very tired and stiff but not sore. I napped in the afternoon because my body was exhausted and I had a massage that night. By Tuesday I was almost feeling normal. I am very impressed with my body as within a day you would not have known that I had just spent three days walking. Granted I am still very stiff in my hip joints and calves but I will just continue to work those kinks out. When I went to Hot Yoga the other night there were some poses I just couldn't get fully into because my hips are so tight but it just means I have to get stretching and get them back to where they were and better!

I am more determined than ever before to get this body into better shape as I am going to walk this walk again next year only I will be stronger and faster!

Hope you enjoyed the show!

ttyl

Sandra

March -Day Two

I ended up waking up at 6:15 so I did manage to get about 3 hours of sleep. I moaned and groaned my way out of that sleeping bag and tent and the first few steps were tender. But once I got a little warmed up, the walking was easier.  We then rushed to dress and went over to the diner tent and got our breakfast by 7:20 and a crew member came over and said the buses were leaving at 7:30. That only left us with 10 minutes to wolf down our breakfast.

We got on the second bus and headed out the highway. It seemed like we travelled forever and as we went up and down each hill, you could hear the groans amongst everyone on the bus thinking about what we had to walk back up over. There was one incredibly long steep hill and at the bottom of it the driver stopped. She had gone too far and had to turn around and go back. Well the entire bus cheered as that meant we didn't have to walk up that steep hill.

So by the time we got to our starting point, the other buses had already arrived and people had started to walk. Kim and I didn't stretch right away as we weren't warm, so we headed out right away. When we got to pitstop #1 - again there were only 2 out-houses and we waited in line and stretched then.

It was a lovely walk as the scenery around us was beautiful. We were right in the foothills of the mountains and the trees are already starting to turn color so it was nice. Unfortunately I didn't have my Nikon with me or the pictures would have been much brighter and with better color but there is now way I wanted to carry that weight around with me. Unfortunately I didn't take a whole lot of pictures the second day.

We had rain, hail, sunshine all through out the day. They had handed out rain ponchos when we got on the bus first thing in the morning so when it started to rain, I took mine out and put it on. Kept me warmer as well as dry.

In addition to the school buses, there were what they called sweep vans and there were six of them. They travelled from the front walkers to the back walkers and travelled with their flashers turned on and drove below the speed limit to keep the traffic slower as they passed us. These vans also shouted out encouragement along the way - they actually were a LOT of fun and kept the mood good. This particular stretch of highway wasn't too busy except with cyclists and a few motorists with their bikes strapped on heading out to do some mountain riding. But on Day One, that highway was very busy and a couple of times a few cars passed vehicles and roared up behind me in the lane nearest me and scared the living daylights out of me - my hair even moved. Those roads are winding, steep and lots of traffic - those drivers were what I call "idots".

Kim and I walked 25K that day. The entire route was 38K but at one point we got a ride between pit stops because she ended up getting a big blister on one of her feet and we got a ride to where the medics were located. She got bandaged up and we continued to walk. But towards the end of the day, where there were only 10K left, she was in pain again and my hips felt like they were seizing up. Since I had the cold full blast, didn't have much sleep the night before, I was pretty wiped out. So we opted to take a van back to camp early and rest up for the third and final day. I wanted to be able to walk the remaining 27K.

On Friday, we both ended the day with hot spots on the pads of our feet and on Saturday morning, I choose to put on moleskin on my feet and Kim figured hers were fine and she didn't need it. Well she did, cause she got blisters and I didn't.  Turns out, on Friday night, they ended up sending about 20% of the folks home because they couldn't continue on with the walk. It ranged from severe blisters to other injuries. I suspect it was the folks who didn't prepare for this walk. There were a LOT of folks limping by the end of that day from blisters.

When we got back to camp we found our tent pretty wet but our bags were dry because they were under the tarp. Unfortunately quite a few people had left their towels strung along the fence or in the trees and they were soaking wet. Fortunately the camp had an over sized dryer and these folks could dry their stuff. We went and showered, and then headed back to our tent to semi-pack as we had to have everything ready for first thing in the morning to be packed into a truck to take to our finish/pickup point. Then we went for dinner. It was chicken, rice, veggies and again bread.  After we ate, the sun finally came out so we walked around a bit to sun dry our hair (I had gone to bed with mine damp the night before - probably didn't help the cold much). I need to walk to get the kinks out. I have NEVER seen so many people in pain all in the same place. We were all walking the same way - tenderly :).

After our hair dried, we went to bed. I have no idea what that nights entertainment was going to be but I heard drums right at about the time I fell asleep - likely around 8:00. I was exhausted. Oh and I had shoved Kim's jacket and vest under my hips and back and that tiny little bit gave me enough pressure relief that I slept much better (or rather passed out from exhaustion).

To be continued........

Day One

Wow, the day was finally here! Something Kim and I had been looking forward to and dreading all at the same time.

We pretty much got there before most everyone else (we don’t live far from the starting point). The folks that were there first were the paramedics. Not sure if that was a good sign or not :)








They had a continental breakfast for everyone and the line up grew as folks showed up. I just waited until the end of the line and grabbed a banana. And a green one at that.







During the opening ceremonies, they had asked how many people had been training and how many hadn’t trained at all. I was shocked as there were quite a few hands that went up that hadn’t trained at all. In this picture we had an Olympic speed skater and his pregnant wife putting us through some stretches.





Then we were off walking around 8:30 a.m.










It was cool to look back and see 300+ people walking along the road.

They had pit stops every 3 or 5KM apart. The first stop did not have any porta-potties, but the second one had 2 – 300 people and only 2 potties. The line-up was long and slow. At that same pit stop they also had snacks for everyone from chips/pretzels, to cheese sticks, orange slices, banana’s and quarter slices of bagels and cream cheese.

They had that kind of setup the entire route (all three days), one stop just Gatorade and Water, and the next stop had food. They were all spaced 3-5K apart. Of course with more porta-potties.

I had been carrying a backpack but it quickly became to heavy and I passed it off to the bus driver who was pacing the walkers. They had 3 school buses available for us in case of an emergency evacuation, or bad weather. This one driver asked me if I wanted to pass off my pack and I took her up on it immediately. Learning here is to carry as little as possible.

Lunch stop the first day.

We changed socks and I changed my shoes this day (had collected my back pack from the bus). I also had come down with a cold on Thursday and by this time, noon on Friday, I could hardly talk. My throat was dry and sore. I had been hit pretty good by the cold.



But I kept on walking.

The route was very hilly and this particular hill was very long and parts of it were steep. It sucked to tell the truth.








Kim and I did not walk very fast about 3mph sometimes slower and although I had previously commented on how slow she walked, on Friday I certainly did not mind. I was feeling pretty sick and had little energy so I was all for walking slow. We were about the middle of the pack and not anywhere near the end so I was good with that. This picture is the end of the day stop. We hit it around 5:00 p.m. We had walked 35KM that day. I was ecstatic and sore, and tired and so proud.


They bussed us to the camp and we were to go find our backpacks and haul them to our tent and set up home for the next two nights. These tents fit two people and that’s it. No bags. They stayed outside wrapped in tarps.






We went and found the showers, and then went for dinner. It was spaghetti with Meatballs, bread and a salad. Nothing special but it worked. To tell the truth, because of my cold, I had to force myself to eat at all that day. I did because I KNEW my body needed it.

Then after dinner this was our entertainment. They had three lovely belly dancers in there dancing around. They made me feel cold just looking at them.







Since I was not feeling well, I took some cold medicine before going to bed and unfortunately all it did was keep me awake. I laid there in pain until about 3:00 a.m. I had an one inch air mattress to lay on and my back and hips were killing me. I could not get comfortable. I had a conversation with myself all night that there was no way I could repeat the same thing the next day. I just didn't know how I was going to be able to get up the next day to walk anymore. I wasn’t feeling good and I wasn’t getting enough sleep. And I HURT!

To be continued…..

Currents, Rain and Crashing :)

Well hello fellow Bloggers! I had a great long weekend, I hope all of you did as well. The weather wasn’t all that great but we made the best of what we had.

On Saturday we went fishing and it was a great fishing hole we found. Lots and lots of big trout. I had a hard time bringing them in because I was having a hard time standing in the water. The hole was along the far bank and in the picture you see Mr. Sandra standing in it. Well he is quite a bit heavier, and taller than me so when I was standing in there, it was about hip height. And in the fast current. So I struggled with getting to that spot, never mind standing in it. I tell ya, that is a workout – walk in a river against the current. Each time I lifted my foot to move it along the bottom, the current would try to push it downstream. You had to really use your legs to keep your feet on the ground. I have to admit, I don’t like wading that much.

Then that evening we all went out for my favorite food – Sushi. Mr. Sandra’s son is a Sushi Chef and so when we go to visit, we all go out for dinner and he orders all the good stuff. It’s expensive but well worth it. We were with Mr. Sandra’s 1st wife and her BF and it was OK. I didn’t have to spend my birthday night celebrating with her so I’m good.

Sunday we woke up to rain and had to go to the Derby. I did end up buying a new pair of Asics for the Kidney March and I have been wearing them ever since Friday. However, there was NO way I was wearing them on Sunday. I brought my sandals along but I would have froze to death. Thankfully there was a sports store close by and I bought some duck boots.

We had to walk in this!

But wow was it fun! I’m sure that the mud added a whole lot of excitement and challenge for the drivers. The audience along the sides frequently got mud splattered all over them. I was lucky that I was in the right place at the right time and missed all the mud flinging. Even though I was right there along the fence with a great view, I just didn’t get hit.

I walked every single day for 30 or more minutes so I am keeping to my “365 Days to 50” challenge. I’m on day 5 and so far so good. And now that the weekend is over, the food is back on track once again.

I’m nervous about starting my walk on Friday.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Ttyl

Sandra

There's snow up there in them Mountains! :(

365 Days and Counting

Yup, you read right, I’m starting a countdown.  365 days from today I will be the ripe young age of 50. I will be at my best health and fitness shape of my life on September 3^rd, 2011. I started this dream two years ago when I saw a picture of Tosca Reno and her Eat Clean Diet book. I thought, if she can do it I can do it. However my progress has been a bit slower (ok I don’t have all that money behind me either or a husband who is my personal trainer… J).  However I’ve spent the last two years experimenting and now it’s time to get down to business. I work better under pressure J

So for the next 365 days I will exercise in some form or another and record it (not here on the blog – I’d bore you to death). Anything from cardio, weight training, to walking the dog is going to count. Even play time as long as it is active. But my goal is to be active from this day forward (strong words there eh?). 365 days is long enough to make it a life time habit don’t you think?

I KNOW I won’t be perfect in the food area. I refuse to go on a diet – that’s why it’s taken me the last two years to get anywhere. I realize that, but I am doing this for the rest of my life so I must find a happy medium. I feel the best when I eat clean less processed food so my goal is to focus back at that. I haven’t squeezed wheatgrass juice since last April – it’s time to start my grow op again. It’s close to the end of the vegetable season so now is a great time to stock up on fresh carrots etc. and start juicing my veggies every morning again. I want to pay more attention to my hunger signals and stop eating because the watch says it is time to and rely on my body again. I’ve got to watch the social beverages, keep them to a minimum, cut back on all other sugar drinks (not that I drink them often). Stop the burgers and fries. Again not that I have them often but it was summer and we did go camping a lot. And stop the night time snacking (it’s those potato chips back to haunt me).

Of course the previous paragraph is going to start AFTER this weekend. We are going away for the long weekend and will be partying it up a bit as it is my Birthday, going for lovely Sushi at my favorite restaurant and then to the Demolition Derby on Sunday which should be a lot of fun. Food choices will be kept smart but I’m not going to restrict too much. Mr. Sandra got a wake-up call from the DR yesterday so he will be joining me in my healthy eating journey starting Tuesday. He calls it is his last weekend, kind of like the last supper, before the crackdown.

So speaking of Mr. Sandra – he has been exercising for the last week – taking the dog for a bike ride and running her, and exercising him. Even though I have told him how to get healthy, it took his Dr. to tell him the same thing for it to actually sink in. I don’t care what the source as long as he starts taking better care of himself. The first thing everyone tells him is that he must start exercising and if he would just do that then all the other issues will recede. So I’ve got my fingers crossed that he will listen this time….

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC day – I know I am. It’s my Birthday and I’m leavin work early!

Ttyl

Sandra

What to do...

Well good morning folks, I hope all of you are doing great!

I've had a busy week and have gotten a lot accomplished both at home and at work. Monday I went to Hot Yoga hoping it would help my "hurtin hips" and although it was too painful to get into some of the deeper hip opening exercises, I did pretty good. It has been quite some months since I was last there and quite frankly I missed it. Thoroughly enjoyed the 90 minutes.

And Tuesday, my hips felt better. So when I had my personal training session after work, she normally works my legs on Tuesdays so I told her I wanted to only do upperbody and give my legs one more day of healing. So that's what we did.

Then I went home and my lovely massage terrorist came over to my house. She left the studio that I first met her at last October and went mobile in June. I haven't seen her since then. Well for an hour and a half she worked out the knots in my muscles and it freakin HURT! She kept asking me if we were still friends :) I told her we were that day but I would let her know the next day if we would still be... she laughed.

And although my body is tender to touch the next day, we are still friends because my hip feels much better.

Well it used to until last night.

Kim and I walked another 16Km training session. There were about 50 or so people that showed up for the walk and I was happy because I thought Kim would keep up. She started out well, then slowed right down. I didn't walk with her for about half of the walk but she was getting so far behind I walked back to her (rather than stop) and walked with her again. She picked up her pace with me. At about 10 K, my feet, back and hips were really starting to hurt.

Last April I got new orthotics and had been wearing them all summer with my Nike's. With the longer walks the Nike's were starting to hurt my feet so I stopped wearing them and during my vacation I got a pair of Asics with arch support - no need for my orthotics. And I've been doing my longer walks in the Asics. I've been using the Orthotics in a pair of New Balance that I got in June but only indoors on my treadmill. Last night was the first time outside with the New Balance shoes and the combination just about crippled me by the end of the walk.

Even though I wear double layered socks (not cotton) when I took off my shoes last night, the bottoms of my feet stung. They were burning. I didn't get any blisters thank goodness. Mr. Sandra rubbed my feet a bit and they started to feel a bit better.

It is so obvious that without the right footwear you can certainly affect your entire lower body. Everything hurt from my waist down. So today, I'm at work wearing my work clothes and my  Asics. I don't care what I look like, I wasn't wearing dress sandles. My feet need to feel good and these shoes make my feet feel better.

So for the walk, it's going to have to be only one pair of shoes. They recommend two pairs to trade off but I don't have enough time to wear in another pair of Asics (and they are $200.00 - and can't really afford that right now either) within the next 8 days. I have lots of good socks so will just trade them out throughout the day and bring along a pair of sandles for the end of the day... something that feels like soft cushions for my feet.

Man the things I do to myself :)

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC day!