Happy Thanksgiving!

I had one heck of a week, followed by a fabulous weekend.

 

Things were exceptionally busy at both work and at home during the week, and I'm not proud to say that with the stress of it all I did a fair bit of yelling at home.

 

The one thing that kept me from going completely over the edge was exercise.  I'd have a nutso day at work, go home to a different kind of nutso, yell, then head out the door to either run with the dog or hit the gym.

 

Endorphins are wonderful things, aren't they? I'd come home feeling refreshed and happy, start off the next day calm, but then find myself getting increasingly tense as the day went on. Repeat.

 

So - I got in a couple of short runs, a couple of circuits, an abs workout, a body sculpting class and eventually the week was over.

 

And we had a 3-day weekend for Thanksgiving. Blissful.

 

We kicked things off with treetop trekking & ziplining! My son and I went with my brother-in-law and nephew, with my SIL on hand to take pictures. We gave this adventure to my nephew for his birthday, and had a fantastic afternoon out in the forest with the trees in full colour.

 

But here's the thing - I've done this before, but I really am afraid of heights. Ziplining is great fun, but walking on wobbly tightropes high up off the ground is really not my thing. But sometimes you have to push the envelope, y'know?

 

Me in red - catching my breath with my son. My nephew behind us in blue, with his dad on the platform to the right.

Heading out on the next obstacle. Reminding myself: "I am a Spartan...I am a Warrior..."

Edging along

 

I loved this one!

After the first obstacle course, I'd had enough. Meanwhile, both kids turned out to be absolute adrenaline junkies. They hit the intermediate course, then my son and BIL went for advanced one before all three of them went for the Big Zip at the end.

 

Double-decker cousins

My son ran through this one. Nephew was just as fearless.

The last zip: My son on the highest platform, nephew partway up the rope ladder, BIL on the platform below
I badly wanted to do this zip but couldn't face that rope ladder.





My son zipping in to the finish

 

The verdict? There's a really strong chance that I won't be going treetop trekking again, although I'd love to go ziplining again. The kids, though -

 

"We're coming back again, right?"

"Best birthday present ever, Auntie Jen!"

"We HAVE to bring [our younger siblings] next time - they should totally do the kids course!"

 

...and with that, we grabbed hot chocolates and met the rest of the family at Grandma's for Thanksgiving dinner.

 

The rest of the weekend has been a nice mix of chores, relaxing and our own Thanksgiving dinner. Followed by a trip to the park down the street to run the dog, soak up some sun...



 

 ...and shoot some hoops.

She sank this one.

The stress from last week seems like a distant memory now. A lot of it is temporary, both at work and at home. It may be a few more days until things calm down, but here's hoping that this week is more manageable.

 

 

 

Exercise not Doughnuts

This has been a difficult week. We received some very sad news at work. Stella got a nail embedded in her paw and needed an emergency trip to the vet's. I came down with a cold. The week has been a bit of a blur.

And my reaction to all of this has been very uneven. Don't get me wrong - I compeletely understand the need to rest when rest is needed, but I've been all over the map this week.

I skipped my Monday night training swim and Zumba. Partly busy with some after-hours work tasks, partly because I was generally tired/sick and partly because I was sad and felt like cocooning.

I did go to Curves twice - skipped the circuit (too hard to breathe), but hit a couple of boot camps hard to work out some of my emotions.

Stella and I had to keep our runs super short earlier in the week when it was hard to breathe and her paw was sore. Fortunately we're both getting back into things now.

But I've also been hitting the comfort food HARD.

I've got news for you - going for a run is way, way more therapeutic than hourly doughnuts. I don't think I'd ever properly appreciated how much of a depressant sugar is until this week.

Towards the end of the week, someone mentioned that next week will be a fresh start. But that's a few days away and I no longer want or need to wait that long. Besides, it seems kind of arbitrary to wait for a new week to try to get back to normal.

So - the last couple of days have been about doing just that: slowly getting back to normal. Stella & I are redoing C25K week 2, I've been doughnut-free for two days and the gym is beckoning.

On a happier note - we had a great weekend before all of this started. The kids and I left my husband at home to work on a home repair, and had a weekend away with my fav cousin and her 4 kids. Did a lot of laughing, took the kids skating and went to an indoor/outdoor waterpark:

Me with my eyes closed, my daughter & my cousin

 Six very happy kids. Check out the steam coming off the water. It's also snowing.

My son

And me. Yes, those are ski hills in the background. And no, I didn't catch my cold from going swimming outside in late January.

Here's this week's exercise:

Friday evening - swimming.

Saturday - skating and swimming.

Sunday - 1K dog walk

Monday - 400 misc crunches, 100 leg lifts, 50 pushups, 3 x 35s planks

Wednesday - 1K dog walk

Thursday - 400 crunches, 50 leg lifts, 50 pushups, 3 x 35x planks, 100 arm lifts with 10lb weights.

Friday - C25K W2D1 (2.4K). Followed by a funeral. But then we ended the day on a high note with an early birthday party for my daughter and some of her friends at a trampoline centre:

My daughter in bright pink catching serious air. Her brother to her right.