Ms Katie

Doin what she likes best….

She needs a haircut – her Mohawk has come back :)

 

 

 

 

That’s her with in the jumping leap. I’m not kidding when I say they run 5 miles to your walking every one They run back and forth constantly unless you bring them in close.

 

You do not shoot these, they are swans… but I had to take a picture.

 

 

 

You have to force them to take breaks every once in awhile. Here she is checking out what I’m doing.

 

 

This is her brother. They run through some pretty rough grass and reeds and I am surprised they aren’t more scratched up than what few they have at the end of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no interest in hunting in itself but I do really like watching the dogs do what they love to do. Their tails wag the entire time they are out running. They love what they do and are good at it. I am impressed with how well behaved Katie was. Last year I felt like she was just following her brother but this year she was really working. She was hunting for birds.

These next few pictures are of a pointer who found a bird and what they do is stand there pointing until the Hunter comes and releases them.

 

Once signalled from the hunter, they flush out the bird and will retrieve it when it is down.

Katie and her brother had to sit and watch and it was very hard for them to do but they are well trained and just cried (cause they wanted to run so bad)….

 

I hope you enjoyed the day with me….

Have a great week!

Sandra

Hot 100 Week 9

Here’s my Week 9 HOT 100 Update!

1. Nurture 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 judgmental to others.
• Week 9 (Nov 19^th-25th): (A-) – I’ve done really well in this area. I’ve spent some quality on myself for the last 2 weeks. I’m starting to feel “normal” again.
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 some days 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.
• Week 9 (Nov 19th-25th): (c-)I know this is a poor excuse but with this really cold weather, I have not wanted to go to the gym and have only wanted to head straight home at the end of the day. And unfortunately my workout space has been taken over by boxes and boxes of stuff as I’m pulling out my Christmas stuff from under the stairs. Anyway, I’ve been getting up at 4:00 and getting on the treadmill and doing the JM Kettlebell shred but nothing much after work but cleaning and organizing and trying to keep warm. I could have done much better in this area.
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.
• Week 9 (Nov 19^th-25th): (B-) I’ve done fairly good in this area but there is room for improvement. I’ve been tracking my calories and trying really hard to keep within my limits. There have been some days though that I have gone a bit over but nothing huge.
4. Track an average of 10,000 steps every day.  
• Every day 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.
• Week 9 (Nov 19th-25th): (C-) Haven’t even worn the pedometer lately but I KNOW I’m only averaging about 6000 steps per day.
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 grocery store so I should only buy a couple of days’ worth.
• Week 9 (Nov 19^th-25th):  Haven’t been doing too bad in this area.

I have been in a funk for about 2.5 weeks but the last 4 days I seem to be coming out of it. My mood is lighter and I’m feeling a bit more energetic. I’m pretty sure it is related to Menopause (sorry guys) as the evasive Uncle Tom finally showed up and the bloat, yucky feeling I’ve been feeling for the last month seems to have abated a bit. I KNOW too much information.

My PC is working again, it was as simple as a loose cable. The boys must have been horsin’ around in the office (which is also their room)  last weekend and gave the PC a good bump. Shouldn’t have been loose cables in the first place but it was and now I’ve reseated everything to confirm it is in there solid. I will send out some more blogs this weekend!

Hope everyone is doing great!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

:( Lost my PC over the weekend....

I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to send out, my Hot 100 Update (it was due on Friday and I was too busy at work to get it sent out). Then I was going to do some pictures from the hunting weekend, then I was to send out another update to Allan on Sunday. All of which I wasn’t able to do this weekend because my home PC decided that it no longer wanted to work. I’ll tell ya, after spending 5 days working on Servers, the last thing I want to do on a weekend is trying to fix a PC. 

So nothing got done … in that department.

I did however get to spend the weekend with my grandson Aiden and we played, and made candy cane shaped rice crispies and I sent them all home with him and Mr. Cody. I also got a ton of cleaning done and a bit of organization.

It is so cold here right now and that staying in the house was the order of the weekend. I tell ya, we went from a warm Fall to blast right smack dab in the middle of winter. It is really cold and miserable here.

I hope to get my PC fixed today and get some pictures sent out.

I miss regularly blogging and reading everyone’s posts… I guess this does mean I have job security but man,

I’d like it to ease off a bit so that I can spend a few minutes reading up on all of you!

I hope you are having a FANTASTIC Week!

Ttyl

Sandra

Hello!!

I thought I’d better send you a quick note to let you know that I was still alive and kicking and that during pheasant hunting I wasn’t mistaken for a bird. I was wearing my florescent orange toque and vest so EVERYONE saw me. It was a very lovely cold three days but once in my trailer (with electricity), I kept the heat on and was nice and toasty. No water though as we couldn’t get any tap access with flowing water. But I know how to deal with that…..

I’ve got some pictures to share but not here at work. I will post them on the weekend if I get a chance. My little Ms. Katie knew her stuff this year. Last year I’m sure all she wanted to do was play with her brother and pretend she knew what she was doing but this year she was working. It is amazing how much these dogs love their job. Her tail never stopped wagging. If I worked as hard as she does during those days, I’d lose 50lbs easily. But man they are tired for days afterwards. Unfortunately the dog loves it so much they don’t know when to quit and it’s up to us to make sure she gets rest. She runs 5 miles for my every 1 mile.

When we got back on Saturday night, both of us were too pooped to continue to drive the trailer out to the acreage so we stopped off at the city home and called ahead to have the neighbor and my daughter move their vehicles. It’s tough to park ~60 feet of vehicle on the streets these days. But we moved it out the next day and while we were out my brother called to inform me my sister and brother-in-law were fine. It took me some time to understand what he was talking about.

My sister and BIL have never travelled anywhere in their lives. My brother and I do it all the time but my sister  was afraid of going away. But her best friends daughter was getting married in Mexico and they had been planning this trip for over a year. As the time drew closer, my sister was getting more and more nervous but looking forward to it at the same time. They left on Saturday and were not even there 24 hours when their hotel blew up (I’m sure you have all heard the news). Scared the living daylights out of all of them. They were in the building next to the explosion so it was too close for comfort. We have been Blackberry Messaging back and forth since and they have all calmed down and are enjoying themselves by getting away from the resort and seeing other sites. I’m hoping this won’t deter her from ever going anywhere ever again. My bro and I travel all the time and nothing happens, my sis – wham… bad luck being there at the wrong time…. But thank goodness her and all their friends are safe and not hurt. I mourn for the people  that lost family/friends during that tragic incident.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a lot of ice and snow coverage on the ground. Freakin winter hit over night around here. Roads are terrible, it’s cold and windy and just plain yucky! But very very white.

This weekend I have little man (my grandson) over for a couple of days. He stays in his PJs almost all weekend (unless we go out) cause that just what he likes to do when he gets to Grandma’s house. He gets special treatment with me and we both love it J He’s 7 now so pretty much keeps himself happy and does his own thing at my house (within reason of course). Grandma still disciplines if it is required.

My son (with the lovely little 5 month old baby girl) is having issues with his GF. In fact, he told me last night he may be single by the end of the month. I absolutely hate hearing this and although he has been having issues for quite some time, I really wish he would work it through. I’ve heard only his side of things but I’ve witnessed a lot of what he talks about so do understand he isn’t exaggerating. I just wish I could talk some sense into her…. Or her mother could. My son has no separate time from his GF. He works, comes home and takes care of the baby, sleeps a bit, goes back to work. GF doesn’t do much of anything but complain if he spends anytime not paying attention to her. It’s a tough one as this young lady is suffering from postpartum depression  (I’m sure she is) and is extremely insecure. If he could just “deal” with it a bit longer I’m sure they can work things out. But then again, maybe a little break will open her eyes a bit and see how demanding she has become…

Oh my family stresses me out sometimes….. Being the ROCK in the family sucks sometimes J

Well for a quick note, I sure jabbered on a bit…. I’ve got to get back to work as it is so busy right now I can hardly thing straight.

Ttyl

Sandra

Going Camping

We had such a horrible summer and now here it is almost the middle of November and we are going camping tomorrow for 3/4 days. It will be cold (3 degrees Celsius during the day) and we will need a furnace overnight (and likely all day as well) but we are going to head out anyway. Mr. Sandra and his friend want to go Pheasant Hunting and us ladies are tagging along for the trip. I follow along in my florescent orange jacket and take tons of pictures of the dogs doing their job. I will hopefully get some good shots and be able to post some on the weekend of Ms. Katie doing what she loves to do – hunt out birds and retrieving them.

I will be bringing along my TRX and connecting to either the ladder on the trailer or to some surrounding tree but depending on exactly where we put the trailer, on when and how much I will actually use it. Exercising out in public is not something I am comfortable with (yet). If it is hidden a bit, then no issues. Remaining time I will be doing a lot of walking. Going to take my pedometer (the thing is attached to me all the time anyway) and see how many steps and KM we do.

I’m going to bundle up and enjoy the next 4 days out in my trailer. Normally here in Canada, filling your trailer with water at this time of the year is risky but when we bought this trailer we had the entire underside sprayed with foam and all the pipes heat taped. We have never really done any late fall/winter camping (with water) so it will be interesting how the next four days go. Also while out there, I’ll be cleaning it, and emptying the freezable contents into bins to unload when we drop off the trailer on Saturday or Sunday. At that time we will be finalizing the winterizing as well… don’t want any pipes to freeze over the winter.

I’m looking forward to getting away. Hopefully it won’t snow… J

I hope you all are having  a fantastic week!

Ttyl

Sandra

p.s., thanks to everyone on the feedback on the BB versus Fitbit. I think I will do a little bit more investigation, maybe give Fitbit another 2 weeks (I’ve already waited 5 months) and then go from there.

 

Hot 100 Week 7 Update

Here’s my Week 7 HOT 100 Update!

1. Nurture 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 judgmental to others.
• Week 7 (Nov 5^th Nov11th): (A-) – I did well again this week, maybe not every day but what time I did spend was good. I’ve created my “space” in my basement (finished) beside my fireplace. I go there to take a few minutes at the end of the day just to sit, maybe read, maybe not… I have noticed an improvement in my quality of sleep.
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 some days 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.
• Week 7 (Nov 5^th Nov11th): (A+) Well that improvement in sleep could just be because I’m working my butt off in the gym and at home. In fact, I am finding my workouts at home better. At the gym I have to wait for equipment or feel silly bouncing between sets and doing jumping jacks for cardio in between. At home I am free to act as silly as I want.
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.
• Week 7 (Nov 5^th Nov11th): (B-) I’m grading myself a bit lower this week because although I have eaten good, there were a couple of days where I didn’t do so good. It is getting better though and I am keeping track and becoming more aware of what is going in my mouth. It’s not so much what as it was how much.
4. Track an average of 10,000 steps every day.  
• Every day 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.
• Week 7 (Nov 5^th Nov11th): (B-) again, not sure if I will be able to get to 10,000 steps a week and I think this will continue as long as I focus on strength training rather than cardio.
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 grocery store so I should only buy a couple of days’ worth.
• Week 7 (Nov 5^th Nov11th): (B) this week wasn’t so good. I ended up throwing out some stuff like expired yogurt and sour cream. It was more condiment related than anything. This weekend we are also emptying out our trailer and winterizing it. Chances are good I will be throwing out stuff from there that has become damp or just plain old.

I hope you all had a great week!

Ttyl

Sandra

Body Bugg versus Other Product??

I saw the Body Bugg  a couple years ago on the Biggest Loser show (the one show I watched) and thought it was a great tool for evaluating how you are doing in regards to burning calories.  So I immediately looked it up on the internet to see if I could get it. YOU know I am all about the newest gadgets. But unfortunately you couldn’t get it in Canada. So I looked into and ordered a FitBit. They would deliver to Canada and it was more than half of what the BB was for cost. It also has some pretty cool features. I ordered it in the middle of June & I am still waiting for it.  L

 

So the other day I visited my local Fitness Equipment and right there in front of me were boxes and boxes of Body Bugg.  It bothered me that they were right there in my face and I had an order in with Fitbit that they could not fulfill. However there is a HUGE price difference. BB is going for $257.00 (CDN) and I’ve ordered the FitBit for ~$114 .00. That was one of the reasons I went with that product, it was so much cheaper. However, they still can’t catch up to demand and make enough product to ship out.

 

Do any of you use a monitoring product and if you do, which one do you like? Do I cancel the Fitbit and bite the pocket book and get the BB? Or wait out the Fitbit?

Maybe I should question why I need that outside device to help me keep track of my output/input……

Anything that makes life easier.

Ttyl

Sandra

She’s growin J

 

2010 Hot 100 Week 6

Here’s my Week 6 HOT 100 Update!

1. Nurture 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 judgmental to others.
• Week 6 (Oct 29th-Nov 4th): (B) – I managed to spend more “ME” time this week. I organized myself, did some meditation, just had some good down time.
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 some days 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.
• Week 6 (Oct 29th-Nov 4th): (A) Oh Ya! I had some good workouts this week. Even though I’m not seeing my PT anymore, I made it to the gym and worked out on my own. I also got up at 4:00 a.m. a couple of times this week and did some home sessions. Next week when the time changes getting up at 4:00 a.m. will likely be a daily thing. And of course my weekend workouts rocked.  I got in a total of 545 minutes. However I must note, I am getting tired and not recovering as fast as I should. AND I made it to HOT Yoga on Monday night J
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.
• Week 6 (Oct 29th-Nov 4th): (B) I have done so much better this week. AND I started to track my eats and it really opened my eyes on how much I was eating. Just cause it was good for me didn’t mean I had to eat so much of it. I’ve made a huge change this week and so far so good.
4. Track an average of 10,000 steps every day.  
• Every day 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.
• Week 6 (Oct 29th-Nov 4th): (B) again, not sure if I will be able to get to 10,000 steps right now. With doing less cardio and more circuit/cross training, strength training sessions, the steps aren’t adding up fast. I averaged 8794 steps, still not a bad number.
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 grocery store so I should only buy a couple of days’ worth.
• Week 6 (Oct 29th-Nov 4th): (B) My fridge is a little bare because I’m buying it, and eating it. Trying really hard not to waste anything.

YEAH!! We are green this week.

I hope you have a great week!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

 

Enufs enuf.....

Today marks another freakin green light to head towards my goal of getting fit and healthy. I’m getting tired of bouncing around and it’s time to get off the “I’m invincible” train ride.  I can’t just eat as much and drink as much as I want and still expect to lose any weight. Not going to happen no matter what age you are but when you are approaching menopause (or are in it) there is no hope in keeping your life as it was and expect to get better. You all know that saying “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. That’s kind of what I’ve been doing these past years. Sad part is is that I knew this…..

We all know I know how to exercise and once I get my head wrapped around it, I have no problem keeping the motivation going (for about 4-6 months anyway). I’ll admit I go through spouts of loss of motivation where I find it hard to get my butt out of bed in the morning. But they usually start in May and keep in place until about the end of August. Anything familiar about that time line? Yup, it is the summer vacation time. Actually it usually starts when the time changes back in the Spring because when you get up at 4:00 a.m., moving that clock back an hour makes it almost impossible for me to get my butt out of bed. I have such a much easier time in the fall which will be happening this weekend.

I am planning on making November a month to remember. I am stopping all the self-sabotage and getting my stuff together. I know getting up at 4:00 a.m. ensures that no matter what happens by the end of the work day, I’ve at least gotten in 30 minutes of activity. And I plan on using that 30 minutes wisely. Something pretty strenuous to get the blood flowing and the metabolism revved up for the rest of the day. It may be Jillian Michael’s DVDs, or a 20 minute intense interval walk/run or just my own strength training workout. I’m planning on the more intense strength training workouts after work when I have more time.

It’s the eats I have to get back under control. I was WAY WAY TOO high last week.  Keeping track helped me realize what was going on.  And then came the weekend  where I was too low. Makes no sense to me but that’s how it goes in my life. I’ve got to balance all 7 days out and do a much better job than I have been doing. And to start my lovely week off, I forgot my lunch at home today so now I have to go out and buy some stuff that makes choices easy. I think I will walk to the nearest grocery store, which is about 6 blocks away, and stock up on my stuff.

Most of you know that I drink beer (those that don’t … sorry to disappoint ya J ), and since May (Mazatlan trip), it has been way more often than it should be. We used to make it one night a week where we had “date night” and would go out for dinner, a game of online Golden Tee golf and a couple of beers. But when summer started, there came the camping weekends and 98% of the time, beer came along. Even if not invited, he was there J  Now it’s time to go back to that once a week treat and keep it as that – a treat. Not something that I just do cause we are out (and the waitress automatically brings it over to us). I know you are all thinking that I should eliminate it entirely from my life but it isn’t a permanent plan of mine – to give everything I like up entirely. What I have to do is learn to include those things I like but in moderation. That is the key….. Moderation!!  I am not on a diet, it is a way of life and if my life includes a couple of beers once in a while, then so be it. I just have to ensure and work harder at, making it only once in a while and not two-three times a week. But I also think to make this successful right now I have  to eliminate it completely until I have everything in order. You never know, by the end of this I may not even want those treats anymore.

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC week!

Ttyl

Sandra