W.T. Loss vs. Trap Shooting

My oh My – this blog can go all over the place sometimes can’t it? My title doesn’t exactly say “weight loss”, it just says “ A better ME”. So today, getting involved in outdoor activities is creating a better more active “ME”. Some times you get pictures of me fishing, sometimes I’m walkin, sometimes it’s the scenery.  Today it is about my new purchase….or rather Mr. Sandra’s purchase because I am not a licensed firearm user. He bought it for me .

Yup, I am the proud owner user of a Mossberg Silver Reserve O/U 20 ga.

I don’t just ease into something, I get all excited and get all into it. Helps that Mr. Sandra is an avid hunter and previous active marksman but he is all excited about me liking this Trap/Skeet shooting adventure.

It gets us out together doing something that we like. Better than him sitting on couch watching TV and me cleaning the house. The only physical thing about this is using the upper body strength to hold that gun up but it is still exercise of a sort.

Crazy…..

Last weekend we went out on Saturday all bundled up because it was cold and snowy (well I was bundled up). But we went anyway. Problem with doing a summer sport in the winter is those extra layers you need to wear. Which for me means that I have a hard time getting the butt of the gun to stay in the right place and not slide out onto my arm. Saturday I got hit several times on my bicep. Bad Bad Bad recoil. Although this gun does not have too powerful of a kick, it kicked my arm. I normally don’t bruise easy but I have a bruise now. One to many times being hit in the wrong place  it sure makes you correct yourself before pulling that trigger.

This time next year you may see my name in the papers as an expert markswomen winning all the local competitions… ha ha… dream on….

Ttyl,

Sandra

p.s., I got two tickets to WICKED yesterday! Looking forward to it on July 5th.

Wow - how to stay young

I think this is cool – started track and field at 70 years old and is now 91 and still going strong! I’m going to be like her when I grow up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/9439116.stm

Since posting that sugar link  last week I’ve been learning a LOT more about diabetes and blood sugar levels. Last summer Mr. Sandra was advised from his doctor that he was pre-diabetic, pre-high cholesterol and borderline high blood pressure. Most of my regular readers know all this as I’m mentioned it before. His Dr. recommended that he stop drinking regular pop – which he did. I recommended he start exercising – which he did for about 2 weeks.  I’ve tried over the last 6 months to get him to get healthier – to give this a better effort. To him, he is fine. To me, he is a walking Heart Attack waiting to happen. But his Dr. only said “stop the pop”. Me… I don’t know what I’m talking about.

So I bought a glucose meter. I tested myself, tested his son when he was here last week and tested Mr. Sandra. I was 4.4 (this is the Canadian numbers), son was 3.8 and Mr. Sandra was 9.7. Ok, not a good sign. So yesterday morning I left a note with instructions on when to test, to get on the treadmill, and what to eat. He followed my instructions. But when he tested before lunch (after exercising lightly), his reading was 16.6. That’s diabetic folks, there’s no PRE about it. It just about floored him. Fortunately it didn’t stay that high but it never went below 10 all day.

So last night we had a talk (again) and he is finally taking this seriously. I just knew having the proof right there in his face, like the glucose meter, would jolt him into action. But what it means is that even though he is 51 years old, I have to outline exactly what he needs to do and eat. He needs help.

And this will help me stay on track as well. Since I have the meter, I’m frequently testing my blood too to see what affect certain foods have on me. It’s interesting and I think I’ll get it all figured out in a week or two what I should or should not eat in order to not experience any of those crashes. I’m a human experiment and I’m having fun!

My exercising is rockin – I’ve been doing the Peak 8 HIIT once a week, then strength training 3x a week. I’m about to start the heaving lifting section of this program. The last month was building up to that. And of course I’m doing the Hot Yoga 1-3x a week. Lately it’s been more 1x a week because I’ve been so busy. And I’m also doing other cardio sessions but not HIIT – just walking.

I weighed, measured and took pictures on Sunday. I’m going to send out another post about that one….

Hope you are all having a fantastic week – we actually have blue sky today so I’m happy J

Ttyl

Sandra

 

The Effect of Soda on Your Body

Spring Time!!

Ahhh… spring! What a lovely time of year. Unfortunately where I am living, Mother Nature has NO IDEA what time of the year it is. It’s SNOWING outside! I’m so so tired of it I tell ya. Me and everyone else around me…

And this is what I get to look at this morning – even the plants are confused as to the time of year. Normally these bloom around Christmas… not spring.

 

They opened up over the weekend. Very pretty.

 

I had a great weekend. Worked out on Saturday morning using my video and did a full body strength training session. My Grandson was watching me and when it came to do the pushups I said “Ah I struggle doing these”. Well he got down on the floor with me and did the pushups with me “See Grandma  it’s not so hard”. He’s right – when you are 7 and weigh 50 lbs but oh so cute getting down there and helping me out.

Then after that I walked on the treadmill just to burn more fat while he played his Wii.

Mr. Sandra, Young Mr. Sandra and I went to the gun club and I had another lesson in Trap shooting. I wore layers as it was cold out and I didn’t want to get cold. However, the coats that I wore did not allow me to get the butt of the gun up tight to my shoulder. After a couple of shots, the butt slipped and was resting against my bicep when the recoil hit… anyone that has shot a shotgun will know that this hurt like the dickens. So I stripped off the coats and that allowed me to get the gun positioned right. This is why I am taking lessons. I’m not a good shot yet but I am learning technique before accuracy. But those I hit I was proud of. I have another lesson next Saturday. There is something about learning to shoot from someone that is not close to you… instructor versus Mr. Sandra…. You know where I’m comin from?

But one thing I need to not do next Saturday is do a shoulder workout an hour or so before I go shooting as holding that gun up gets tiring after awhile – and of course hitting my bicep with the gun didn’t help… But fortunately I had no bruising the next day (it takes a LOT to bruise me).

Sunday was my HIIT day – I did 30 seconds of 7.0 mph throughout a 25 minute treadmill session. I think I got in 7 or 8 stints of the 30 second runs. 7.0 mph is pretty smokin fast for me folks. But I enjoyed it and felt great after.

Afterwards I did a LOT of stretching. My hips are getting tight again from all the leg workouts I’m doing and I’m not comfortable sleeping at night right now. I need to keep the legs and hips limber or I am asking for trouble.

I hope you all had a great weekend and have a FANTASTIC week.

ttyl

Sandra

Trap Shooting

This is always a tough time of the year for me to get up at 4:00. The first week is the hardest.

But I got up this morning and did my 40 minute strength training session. In most of the exercises I have increased 2.5lbs in the weights each week over the last 3 weeks. I love the Bowflex Select Tech dumbbells. It is so easy to change weights and progress in the smaller poundage.

My HR watch went nuts this morning though, kept getting up to 220 and alarming, then I’d pull the band away from my chest, it would drop to 0 (of course) and I’d pause it and start it again to see my real HR. Was disruptive to my work out because I couldn’t take the beeping when it was going up to the 220 mark. I KNOW my HR wasn’t that high. It was just stressin out because the watch face still said “3:30” instead of “4:30” J

Yesterday I did something new. I went trap shooting. Yup I fired a shotgun for the very first time. We joined a trap and skeet club that is about 10 minutes from my home. Mr. Sandra used to do it all the time as a teen/young adult and wants to get into it again. We had gone there a couple of weeks ago for our Hunting Dog club  annual meeting and before the meeting they had a fun shoot. I had my grandson with me so I didn’t shoot but we watched. Mr. Sandra’s son who is 12 did some skeet shooting with his dad. He loved it and I thought that it was something I would possibly like to do.

I am not interested in hunting but this is something I could like. So yesterday I had a quick 10 minute lesson from the site instructor and during that session the wind picked up and made it a bit miserably cold so I only shot 5 times. I hit the disc the very first shot I made, then missed the other 4. I was ok with that. Need to learn the correct form before I worry about actually hitting those little discs. It was quite the adrenalin rush for me. Those were real guns and real bullets and I was a little nervous because of that.  And I wasn’t sure at first what the recoil would be like. I could tell when I wasn’t holding the gun right when it went off. So I now have an hour training session set up for next Saturday where the instructor will teach me more. I’ll get Mr. Sandra to take some pictures next week so I can share them.

Oh and I got to see Miss Lilyana yesterday, she is almost 9 months old now – can you believe how fast time flies by. She is almost crawling. Gets up on her knees and rocks but she mostly pulls herself along. Unfortunately she makes strange to me L not Mr. Sandra but her Grandma she does. It upsets me but nothing I can do about it. In fact, turns out I am the only person she does it to. I don’t know why… my colors are good and bright. But man she is going to be one beautiful little girl. She has bright blue eyes with long lashes and pouty little lips. They are a perfect shape. And it looks like strawberry blonde. Dad might be learning how to use that shotgun by the time she is a teenager J

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and hope your week is even better

Ttyl

Sandra

 

ABCs of Me

Why not…. Enjoy a little of me….

 

Age: 49
Bed size: Queen but my next bed is going to be a KING!
Chore you hate: cleaning toilets – ick!
Dogs: One (so far) – Kate my English Springer Spaniel (she is part human you know)
Essential start of your day: Getting out of bed J Well it is important  ….  the Morning is when you get the “best” me.

Fave color: Blue and then pink is second. Well maybe Pink then Blue.. hmmm… What color is my website again? Oh yeah – it’s blue.
Gold or silver: Silver – have I mentioned I go to Mazatlan every year and there is this little silver store that LOVES it when I stop by.
Height: 5'1.5" And like Chris states – yes that .5 is important
Instruments I play: Piano

Job title: Enterprise Domain Administrator,  (or Systems Analyst, Network Analyst, Jack of IT Trades… )
Kids: 2 Natural Born Girl and Boy, 3 Step-children from second marriage (one of which still calls me Mom and is a HUGE part of my life), and 3 more almost step-children (if Mr. Sandra and I ever get married). I consider them my kids…  And I have 2 Grandchildren (I know.. not part of the question)
Live: Calgary
Mom’s name: Bette (she has passed but I still love her)
Nicknames: Sas – and there are probably others I am not aware of and probably don’t want to know about J
Overnight hospital stays: 2 (birth)
Pet peeve: People that chew with their mouth open.  Ugh! (I keep seeing this one in other posts and it’s mine too).
Quote from a movie: Can’t think of anything right now.
Right or left handed: Right
Siblings: 1 Sister and 1 Brother – I’m the oldest
Time you wake up: Usually at 4:00 a.m.

Underwear: What you looking for color? Shape? Or do I wear them? J
Veg you dislike: Eggplant – for some reason I can’t handle that one. I LOVE everything else (I think)

X-Rays: chest

Yummy Food you make: I have had very few flops when I cook.  Not sure what is the most yummy though. Would have to ask Mr. Sandra that. I have a ton of favs.

Zoo animal favorite: Eagles – which is rather boring since I see them in the wild and hate the fact that they are in the zoo in the first place but I can get closer to them there. In another life I wanna fly!

 

Workin, Stiff & on Track!

I’ve got to say I’ve been exercising like crazy lately and my body is hurting. I don’t think there is a single muscle in my body that isn’t tight or sore. So the Massage Terrorist is coming over tonight to work some of that stiffness out of my body. So that means I will be really sore tomorrow J But all for getting healthier and fit.

I’ve been focusing on more strength training than cardio right now but when I do do cardio, it is interval style and is kicking my butt. Literally – Mr. Sandra commented last night “I hope you realize you are losing weight, you can really see it in your behind”. I told him that I do struggle with accepting it because the scale is not showing such huge losses but we all know muscle takes up less space (hence smaller butt and trunk junk) so when it catches up to the fat and starts burning it off, the scale will show the results. It’s hard not to focus on the scale when I have to report it every Sunday to Allan, so I tried to get out of that by opting out of the challenge and not weighing in. However,  it’s like a drug addiction that I need to satisfy every morning to see where I’m at. Phffft! AND I miss Allan’s words of encouragement every morning. I actually looked forward to reading it every morning on my blackberry. So I did some {{smoochin}} and I’m back on the list. Yea!

Oh how I digress – I was talking about exercising wasn’t I?  I have also been adding walks on the treadmill. Some days it is 30 minutes some days it is 90 minutes but not at an aerobic pace. Just moderate and steady. I need to keep my hips flexible with all the strength training I’ve been doing so keeping the motion going is required. My hips have been stiff and tight and hurt like heck so the more I stretch them the better. I do not want to have any sciatica problems again.

Stretching out my hip flexors will help me in Yoga as well. Get me into the back bending poses so much further and easier.

Short, getting old, and tight all at the same time… J

Ha ha ha…

Work is NUTS! I don’t know if anyone knows what I do, but I manage my company’s domain, email, Virtual Server infrastructure (and a whole bunch of other stuff)  – I’m the head dudette here in the world of men. We are implementing a ton of brand new technologies and it is very very busy. This is good considering 2 years ago we were all worried about our jobs. I’ve always had job security but it was scary for a while there… now we can’t keep up with the work. Weekends aren’t long enough to rest the brain….

Hope you are all doing great! Have a fantastic weekend!

Ttyl

Sandra

 

Workin Hard!

I did triceps pushups the other day and my arms hurt yesterday!

Why am I so excited you may ask?

Because a year ago I could not do this.

Well maybe one.

This time, although I couldn’t do too many, I could do 75% more than I did before.

The set includes one triceps pushup, one regular pushup and one spider man pushup one right after t the other, moving right back to the Tricep… until you have completed 12 pushups with no rest in between. And this was after my 30 minute weight workout. I know … that’s only 12 pushups but I am impressed even if no one else is J Yeah!

Tuesday night Hot Yoga was a disaster. Couldn’t do half the poses, kept feeling dizzy and sick. Sat out a lot of them. AND the room was especially HOT!! Yuk.. Had been 3 weeks since I last went because of the nasty cold and headaches I’ve had lately.

Last night was different! Did every one of the poses and even got into a few further than ever before. Even though that number on the scale is going down slow as molasses this year, there is way less junk in the trunk. I could make myself smaller last night which allowed me to get into some of the positions better. And I felt GOOD after.

This morning I did a burn interval cardio session for 50 minutes (It’s the Chalene Extreme Burn Interval DVD) and that thing kicked my butt. I hate jumping, always was an extreme effort for me (duh that’s what exercise is all about). Today was no different but I did it the best I could (feet actually left the ground 95% of the time) and  I was tired after but I sure burned a ton of calories. I am getting stronger.

And I’m finding I’m hungry.

Working out a LOT and eating low calorie should make the weight drop off but it isn’t. Not sure what is happening but not going to worry about it just yet. Going to just keep going with the flow.

But I’m hungry.

So drinking my water, eating my fruit, staying clean!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Ttyl

Sandra