Winter Showed Up! Well, Briefly

Is anyone else disappointed at the mild winter we're having? The conditions have been excellent for outdoor running, but it's been pretty lousy for sledding and such.

We were very pleased to get a decent snowfall at the beginning of this week and made sure we took advantage of it before it melted away.

Here's how the week went:

All dog parks should be so fabulous and forested

Saturday - Curves workout followed by a trip to the forest dog park...

Very, very happy girl

 ...and the sledding hills...

C'mon, let's go!

...and then an evening out with my son to cross something off The List:

Hey! Get down from there!

The Harlem Globetrotters! Seeing them live has been on my wishlist since I was a little kid back in the mid-1970s. So you can imagine how excited I was to pick up a couple of tickets on a Groupon deal for this game. And it was just as silly as I expected it would be. Even better that I had a 12-year-old boy to enjoy the show with :-)

Sunday - 1.4K dog walk, a ton of housework, 2K dog park walk...

Walking home from the dog park. Stella loves to stop and play in the snow.
I love to take pictures of her. But you knew that already.

...then later had to use all of my self-discipline to head out the door for C25K week3 run3 (2.4K). I came really close to putting this off until another day, but Stella shamed me into it. Well, actually, she was fast asleep on the floor - all 4 legs twitching in a doggy dream, drooling - but jumped up like a shot when I happened to walk near the front hall. I figured that if she could be raring to go so quickly after being so heavily asleep, then I could put a little effort into my evening. Whatever gets you out the door, I guess.

And that led me to my first experience with running on snowy sidewalks. What a workout!

Believe it or not, I am glad that I am doing this run

Post run. Had to wake her up to go to bed.

Monday - Curves + boot camp #13 (2 mins speed skating, 1 min jumping jacks, 60 leg lifts each side, 200 crunches, 30 squats + 90 arm curls with 8 lb weights, 2 x 35s planks). Followed by a slow 250m in the pool.

Tired. Very tired. But just remembered that tomorrow is REST DAY and managed a small smile.

Tuesday - Ow, my butt. Hobbling around like an old woman after last night's boot camp.

Wednesday - My butt is still tight, but I got in my C25K run - Week 4, Run 1: run 3mins, walk 90sec, run 5 mins, walk 2-1/2 mins, repeat. Covered 2.9K. I have never, ever run 5 continuous minutes before in my life. So, I am spending tonight patting myself on the back. Repeatedly.

Thursday - 2.8km walk during the day. Zumba + Curves workout + boot camp (2 mins speed skating, 110 leg lifts each side, 100 situps with 8lb medicine ball, 200 crunches, 50 squats, 100 arm curls with 8 lb weights). Holy moly.

Friday - PA Day for the kids and I took the day off work. Spent a verrrrry lazzzzzzy day but did get them to the park for a couple of hours, and did C25K week 4 run 2 before bed. Not a bad way to spend a day.

How was your week?

Strength Training through Gardening

Cross one off The List - a butterfly garden has been planted!

Bending, stretching, digging, planting...gardening is great exercise. Especially when you have to dig up sod before you can get started!

Before - front corner of the yard. Clover is starting to fill in but this is the patchiest part of the lawn.
Looking forward to having a garden here instead.

All in all, I spent about 9 hours on this project over 2 days. Started by digging up 25 sq-ft of the front lawn. Not a massive patch, but it was still long and tedious work and it took a couple of hours. Definitely not my favourite part of the project.

Thank goodness the bulk of the site prep is behind me and I can get to planting.

Woke up the next morning, eager to get planting - and realized that I wasn't sore!!! My back, hands, legs and feet all got worked yesterday but I'm feeling strong. This is a nice change from past spring planting sessions when I'd wake up the next day feeling stiff and tired.



My daughter loves getting her hands in the dirt!

Had a quick breakfast, then headed outside with a cup of coffee and my shovels. Spent a fair bit of time fussing with plant placement and enlarging the patch I dug up yesterday. My husband did the final shaping - he's got a much better eye for design than I do.

All of the plants that I put in are teeny and I'm hopeful that they thrive. Can't wait for them to mature a bit, fill in and start blooming.

For your interest, we planted: 

• Little Bluestem Grass and 3 x Dwarf Shooting Star - good host plants for larvae
• A Butterfly Bush, 2 x Spirea, 5 x Black-Eyed Susan, 3 x Butterfly Weed and 3 x Bee Balm - good nectar sources for adult butterflies
• A few flat rocks - for butterflies to land on and warm themselves
• Lavender and 2 x campanula - relocated from another garden, to fill in bare patches!
• Another garden two feet away contains yarrow - flat big flower heads make more good landing zones for adults

We also need to add a water source - I'm told that either a shallow bird bath or a dish of moist sand will do the trick.

Not the world's most impressive 'after' picture. Can't wait for these plants to grow!

Here's this week's recap -

Saturday - Dig, plant, repeat. Followed by rearranging the furniture in both children's rooms and the tiniest start to a deep clean of my son's room. Not sure that I really want to get into this - his room is filled with loose Lego pieces, "treasures" and dust. Sigh.

Waiting for our turn on the bumper boats
Once again grateful that I no longer have to worry at amusement parks about being able to fit into a lifejacket...or swamp the boats!

Sunday - Met friends for a few hours of fun at Ontario Place - rides, mini golf and so on. Fun!

Son and I at the track - pic by my daughter

Monday - Victoria Day holiday! The four of us went to the park for a few hours - rode our bikes around the track, played catch. I logged about 6K on the bike, and gave my pitching arm a good workout!

Mom - over here! I'm open!
Realized that I'm no longer cranky when my kids' throw is way off and I have to run for the ball.
Being fitter makes games SO much more enjoyable...

Tuesday - Short lunchtime walk, about 1K.

Wednesday - Short lunchtime walk, Zumba

Thursday - Short lunchtime walk, Zumba + 30 pushups.

Friday - Took the kids to the circus! Saw a friend of ours perform in the end-of-year show for the Toronto School of Circus Arts. They put on an amazing aerial and acrobatics show, and it has us excited about the prospect of taking classes at a studio closer to home this fall :-)

What I'm reading this week - Cool Water by Dianne Warren - very reminiscent of Annie Proulx's Wyoming Stories - and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

I DID IT!!!!

View from the parking lot - 7.30am

I finished the CN Tower Climb!! 144 flights, 1776 stairs!

Weeeelllll - actually - let's set the record straight. There is an extra flight at the beginning before the official start, and ELEVEN more flights AFTER THE FINISH LINE that they don't tell you about...ACK! By my count, it's 156 flights and closer to 1900 stairs. WOW.

I didn't really have a goal in mind aside from simply being able to finish. After that, I figured I'd be happy to finish in about an hour...and ecstatic if I could finish in about 45 minutes.

Well - I surprised myself. Not only did I finish, but I made it to the top in 34:39. Strike this one off The List!

I was TERRIFIED in the morning before I started. So nervous!

During the climb, I took it slow and steady...started to get out of breath at the 20th floor, started to get heavy legs at the 50th floor...but took a break every 7-10 flights to catch my breath and bring my heart rate down a bit...and like they say: the next thing I knew, I was at the top.

I did it!

I've got to say - crossing the finish line was an absolutely overwhelming experience. I signed up to celebrate the positive changes that I've made, and finishing taught me just how far I've come. Two years ago, walking one flight of stairs made me breathless. Now? I'm amazed to find myself looking forward to next year's Tower climb to see if I can beat my time, and I've signed up for a 5K power walk in December.

Here's how this week went:

Saturday - CN Tower Climb :-) Followed by a hot bath and then a drive to my mom's for birthday dinner for my sister and I.

Sunday - Recovery Day 1. Feeling fabulous - yesterday's bath was a good idea. Took my kids to a pool for an hour. Did a few slow laps and treaded water while they splashed around.

Monday - Recovery Day 2. Ran errands with Lynda at lunchtime - about a 1.2K power walk. It's always a POWER walk with Lynda!

Wearing the official t-shirt - October 2010

Tuesday - Recovery Day 3. Another lunchtime power walk with Lynda, about 1.2km again. Curves workout after dinner.

Wednesday - OK, recovery's over. Stairs to 7 in the AM.

Thursday - Stairs to7 in AM, walk around the block for an AM fire drill, walk around the block and stairs to 7 at lunch. Curves workout after dinner.

Friday - Crazy day. Managed a walk around the block at lunchtime. Oh, and the parade of treats started last night. Sigh. I'm going to need some serious willpower to keep from hitting the halloween candy too hard.

What I'm reading this week: Angry Fat Girls by Frances Kuffel, focusing on herself and 4 friends and their cycles of losing and regaining vast amounts of weight. She raises an interesting point that for every 25-pounds lost, people who have been overweight for a long time need about a year for their emotional maturity to catch up to their new size - i.e. it takes time to learn normal social judgements, and it takes time unlearn the habit of emotional eating as a response to stress.

It's almost Tower day...

Sunday morning bike ride - October 2010

...so I'd better keep climbing the stairs this week!



I've also been thinking about a goal for after the Tower - something to work towards after I knock this one off the list. I'm a bit lacking in inspiration at the moment, so for now am just setting my sights on keeping fit for the end-of-year weigh-in. Any other suggestions?

Here's a recap of this week:

Saturday - Walked my daughter to gymnastics and back, went to Curves for a workout, then walked about a 12 block-round trip to meet my family for a birthday brunch for my husband.



My son on our Sunday morning bike ride - October 2010



Sunday - Beautiful fall day. Went for a bike ride with my son through the cemetery that runs behind our house. Roughly 4.8km round trip.



Monday - Stairs to 7 in AM; walk around the block and stairs to 12 + 12 at lunch.

Tuesday - Stairs to 7 in AM; walk around the block and stairs to 7 at lunch. Curves workout after dinner.

Wednesday - My birthday! Cake at work, Ethiopian food and key lime pie waiting for me at home. I'm told it's time to start taking it easy before the climb so skipped the stairs today.

Fortunate to attend a talk by the Dalai Lama - October 2010

Thursday - Walk around the block and stairs to 7 at lunch; Curves workout after work.

Friday - Taper day. No stairs. 1.5km walk from work, walking over to hear the Dalai Lama speak on Human Approaches to World Peace. Hearing him speak has been on my list, and I'm so pleased that I had an opportunity to attend this talk. He discussed how an individual's compassion and  inner calm are contributing factors to brain plasticity, personal health and world peace; the need for more women (considered naturally more compassionate then men) to be in positions of authority and as world leaders; the importance of teaching compassion to the youth of today in order to protect the future.   His Holiness spoke for close to an hour, from memory - without consulting any notes. I couldn't help but notice the sculpted arms that this 75 year-old man has. Inspirational on so very many levels.

What I'm reading this week: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The movie's coming out in a few weeks...

Jen Gets Sick (But Not Very)

Ready to get spooked? October 2010
(Still a pro at taking pictures of myself)

It's just a cold and I'm better now. But it knocked me off my feet for a few days. I also said 'goodbye' to the Curves diet for now...I was going squirrelly and starting to go a bit crazy for treats. Better to skip the diet and just eat well. For now.

This week -

Saturday - Cold and rainy. Drove to Curves & the Farmer's market, but parked far enough away that I got in 12 blocks of walking. Worked out.

Sunday - PJ day. Did a deep clean and rearranged furniture in my daughter's room. Heavy furniture.



Osgoode Hall is nicely creepy after dark, especially after
listening to a few ghost stories - October 2010

Monday - Stairs to 7 in AM.

Tuesday - Nothin'. No stairs, no Curves. Spent the day sneezing.

Wednesday - Nothin'. More sneezing.

Thursday - Nothin'. Even more sneezing.

Friday - Cold's almost gone. Skipped the stairs, but went on a 3-hour Haunted City walking tour with my son in the evening. We covered 5.2km, walking from Yonge/Front up to the ROM. Heard a lot of spooky stories about The Hockey Hall of Fame, the Royal York Hotel, Osgoode Hall, Sick Kids Hospital, Queen's Park and U of T. We also learned a lot of history - and I got to knock this off my List!

 What I'm reading this week - Of Flesh and Blood by Daniel Kalla. It's a fictional hospital drama that follows the history of a hospital from founding to present day. Great story. Canadian!