Allow myself to introduce...myself

I couldn't resist that line from Austin Powers however the purpose of this post is to introduce myself to fellow Fitbloggin attendees plus a bit of my regular life blog writing.

So this is me, my real name is Sylvia and that's all I'll give you on the blog. The reason is I work in HR so I try to control what can be googled about my real name. My nom de plum / alias is Cowgirlwarrior. Funny story about that, I couldn't think of a cool name to use so the Cowgirl is because I'm a native of Calgary, Alberta. Calgary is famous for the Calgary Stampede. The warrior came from this weight loss/ fitness journey I'm on. I sometimes use that as a little mantra when I'm trying to push through a workout.

I just turned 40 this year, however most guess younger. Yesterday I went to a BYOB house warming and the girl at the liquor store asked for ID as she wasn't sure, boy was she surprised when I handed over my I.D.

I work for an Energy Company as an HR Advisor, so basically my job is to help managers and employees navigate HR programs. My client group includes the unionized work force so labor relations is a huge component of my job. I actually work at an operational site so I fly to work on Mondays and fly home on Thursdays. While I'm at site I stay in camp. Now by camp I don't mean tents. It's actually closer to a small hotel room. Hey you get used to someone else making your bed, cleaning, and making your meals. My work attire is t-shirts and jeans. At some point I'll be transferred back to the head office in Calgary and will have to get my corporate self on.

I'm an only child so I like to say I don't understand the concept of sharing. I apparently have a fairly unique laugh and people recognize me based on that alone at times which makes me think of Elmo. I do have a reputation of being funny and a tell it like it is sort of person. I'm pretty good at being tactful, well most of the time. The only times I might not be is if someone asks me for my brutally honest opinion.

By nature I'm an introvert especially in new situations, but can quickly turn into an extrovert if I'm comfortable. While I've certainly been to conferences before they've all been work related so this is my first blogging conference. This is also my first trip to central USA. For trips to the US I usually stick to California or Nevada.

My goal at Fitbloggin is to try as much as I can. I'm going to every workout on the schedule. I'm really looking forward to the Zumba, the Jump Fitness and the 5K. The only thing I have to miss is the McCormick tour as my flight time just didn't gel.

I'm so looking forward to meeting bloggers I've followed forever plus meet new people. I just followed the Fitbloggin attendee and sponsor list on Twitter. I started to work my way through the blog lists to follow as well.

Can't believe this is only 4 days away. I'm starting to pack today as my schedule this week is super complicated.

Alright now on to regularly scheduled programming.

I made these yesterday

I've seen loads of bloggers create these and I think it's a good visual goal reminder. I'm using 5 beads per pound, hey those .2, .4, .6 and .8 add up. In the pounds to go jar there are 265 beads - 53lbs to goal. I started from my original starting weight when I walked through the doors of WW.

Speaking of WW, I slept through weigh in yesterday I totally forgot to set my alarm. I will automatically miss next Saturday due to Fitbloggin so next WI is in two weeks. It's definitely been a catch up on sleep weekend. Not sure if I'll have time to blog before Fitbloggin but I plan on documenting my journey and writing a recap when I return.

I do hope all of you are enjoying your Sunday...Hugs!!

Time flies at supersonic speed

This week flew by as I was super busy. So I apologize in advance that this might be a long post.

I was a bit behind having spent Thursday and Monday working in Calgary as I was helping out in interviews.

That is probably what I miss most about having been a recruiter. It's always interesting to hear people's histories and aspirations.

At any rate once I got back to site I thoroughly went through my blackberry and created a monster to do list. I got through most of the priority stuff by Thursday. It was a long week. Working in an operational environment usually means late meetings, it's not uncommon to have a regular meeting that starts at 6pm.

Every quarter we have communication sessions which I get to hear 9 times in all. Once when it's actually presented by the big wigs, and then 8 more times with each of the 8 crews. Pretty much by the end I have it memorized. It's never boring though as everyone asks different questions. When the presenters change I'm there to help them out.

So this week was definitely long and once again workouts suffered, I definitely need a better plan. Working 12hr to 13hr days wipes me out by night time and adding morning workouts takes the will of Superman when it seems like you just fell asleep.

At the end of day it has to be priority. It's now less then a week to Fitbloggin and one thing I'm hoping to get out of the experience is some inspiration. I'm starting to get super geeked and a wee nervous. I'm an introvert by nature, yes I need to be a bit of an extrovert for my job. I can be extroverted when I'm comfortable but in new situations I definitely lean to introvert, I guess it's good thing I'm a Gemini.

Now I quite found of The Shopping Channel which is the Canadian version of QVC, I blame it on being  on a fly in/ fly out work schedule. No malls in the far north.

Well the other day I saw Lug featured. I had no idea they were a Canadian company anyway they were featuring quite the deal of pack of 5 different bags and they had purple. I love purple so I figured with the Fitbloggin trip plus Disney World in November so this struck me as a good idea and it was really good deal.

Well they came today, yahoo so they can come to Fitbloggin.

First of the Taxicab Full tote. I love bag with billions of pockets as I love my bags to be organized. On the back there's a strap so it can hook onto a luggage handle, not to mention an insulated pocket for a water bottle. It also has a removable mirror and coin pouch. It has a water repellent coating. Pretty nice carry on me thinks. It also has a plastic bottom kind of awesome if you put in on the floor. The other thing I like is pockets are big enough for boarding passes while being secure and easy to access.

Next up the Wings Day bag. This one also has loads of pockets and a shoulder strap. It has a nice front pocket and hidden water bottle pocket. What I like about this it's a messenger bag that will fit my Ipad, not to mention a few other things.

Now we have the Somersault shoulder pouch, I put in front of the Wings bag to show the size difference. Again easy access pockets and just the right room for essentials when you don't want to carry a lot.

This pack also came with some accessories.

The Canoe Brush holder, what I love about this is it stands up too, so perfect for a bathroom vanity and enough pockets for make up brushes plus you can put make-up in there too.

What had me at hello was the Clipper flat iron case, you can put a hot flat iron in this thing. Insert angelic music here. I can't even say the number of time I've gotten ready and tried fanning the flat iron so I could pack it or using at night so it's cool to pack in the morning. The other bonus that velcro strap in the front keeps the cord organized.

Last up the wallet, it has a whack of card pockets. Which sometimes I find a challenge with everything having some sort of customer card.

I've never been to their website but know I know they some pretty cool stuff especially for travel and at two planes a week I travel a lot.

I'm coveting this:

It's a travel pillow and blanket, there's an inflatable pillow and blanket inside, and then you put into the case and cozy up with the blanket.

Speaking of travel, I need to pack for Fitbloggin this weekend. On Monday I fly to work, on Tuesday I fly home, on Wednesday I have an all day meeting in Calgary and then on Thursday it's off to Baltimore and I have a super early flight.

Now in current news a friend from the past has resurfaced, well I wouldn't call it friendship exactly it bordered more on frenemies. We met in junior high and at the time there were 3 of us but only two were friends at any given time. Someone was always on the outs for some reason or another after all we were teenagers. Flash forward to University, we went to different schools. I think I stuck with this friendship for that long out of loyalty but I can't say there were too many wins for me. I always got unsolicited advice and if I politely declined this advice it made her mad. Now what confused me is I believed she would be there if the sh*& ever hit the fan. She always thought she was better then me in every aspect of life and admitted that to me point blank. I finally concluded this was toxic and I didn't need that in my life so contact dropped off and then she left for a job somewhere else.

Well she's back and I got the shock of a lifetime when she called me at work almost a month ago. Now it was asking me about what it's like to work a fly in fly out job. So I answered her questions but other than that didn't say too much. It was then followed by an email how it was so nice to talk to me and it was like picking up where the friendship left off. I didn't respond.

Tonight I had a message from her. It was to say hi and see what I was up to this weekend.

I'm torn, I don't need a toxic influence in my life, now of course people change but do they change that much? I need to think about this. I do have a busy weekend as I'm going to housewarming tomorrow and then Sundays are always an early night due to flying out in the wee hours of Monday.

Have you had frenemies in your life?

Hope you had a good Friday.

Hugs!!

Beast mode

I went to WI yesterday and stayed the same which I was expecting. I tracked up till Monday and then nada. I have no excuse, my tracker was on desk right in front of my nose all week. I just didn't treat it like a priority.

As I was sitting there waiting for the meeting to start and sipping my Starbucks I overheard these two women talking. One said coming back to WW was like AA after the summer and the other said she was so impressed when people hit goal in the summer. Yes summer can be a season of distraction.  What is it about fall that makes us all go back to school in some way. I'm not talking about formal school but even when the leader started to talk we talked about getting back to basics. I love fall, this is what I have on my office door, took this picture on Wednesday.

She talked about going back to "school" and encouraged us to read over the material again and then she showed us this:

Ladder of Achievement
100% - I did
90% - I will
80%- I can
70%- I think I can
60%- I might
50%- I think I might
40%- What should I do?
30%- I wish I could
20%- I don't know how
10%- I can't

Now this is the leader that I've always been a little iffy about as she quotes a lot of Dr. Oz but she's starting to grow on me. She asked us where we thought we were on the ladder. I put myself at 70%. She then said anyone at 70% or higher had a good chance of succeeding. It's all about working my way up that ladder and putting more faith in myself.

After weigh in I went to the gym, this was my activity for the day:
30min walk to WW and the gym
30 min walk on treadmill waiting for Zumba to start
45min Zumba
20min of Cardio HIIT class, there was 10 more minutes to go but that class killed me and I decided to save some energy for Iron Reps.
60 min of Iron Reps (not so wise to do this two days in a row as my muscles fatigued in record time)
30 min walk home from the gym

I earned a ginormous of activity points. I decided today would be a rest day even though I should have done 7 miles today. Rest is also important.

The rescheduling of some of those classes makes me realize I need to change my routine a bit. I'm not ready for that Cardio HIIT class even the instructor described it as more for the intermediate to advanced athlete. Plus that much time in the gym not so great the day before my long run days.

I love Zumba so that stays and maybe I'll stick to Iron Reps on Friday. I watched that last few minutes of the step class right before Zumba and might give that a try next week.

Today has been housework day, laundry, watering the lawn, dishes, dusting and etc.

Tomorrow I work in Calgary again and then fly up to site in the evening. The good part about that is I don't need to be up at 3:30am. This time I'm going to take an earlier bus to avoid the crowd I ran into on Thursday.

10 days to Fitbloggin....I'm totally getting nervous. Plus my schedule is whacked. I'll have to pack next weekend as I fly to work the Monday before back on the Tuesday, all day meeting on the Wednesday and then off to Baltimore via Toronto. That's a 6am flight to Toronto...oy vey.

However now I wind down, pack my work bag and review some WW stuff and off to a new week.

Hope your Sunday was wonderful.

Hugs!!

More weights

I did go to the gym today and decided to go to yoga and iron reps with tentative plans to run afterwards.

It's been awhile since I've done any yoga and every time I'm done I think I need to do this more often. I miss a regular class. This one was alright as it's done at the gym. I'd love to return to a studio. I'll have to think about that.

Then it was on to Iron Reps and a new routine. They tend to switch it up every few months. So many squats in this one. My stomach started to growl like crazy as it was now 1pm so I went over to the grocery store and grabbed a healthy lunch.

I've yet to run and not thinking that will happen today.

Tomorrow is WI and I plan to go to Zumba now 45min, try this new HIIT Cardio 30min and do another round of Iron Reps for 45min.

Then later on I'm helping friends move a treadmill, that should be interesting.

That's all I got today. Hope your Friday was super awesome.

Hugs!!!

Not used to it anymore

Today I had to go into the main office as I was helping out with interviews, sort of going back to old job to help out. Interviews are the part I miss the most. I used to love hearing people's stories on how they accomplished what they did and having a hand in how a group was created.

What I'm no longer used to is working in downtown Calgary. From the crowded bus ride in the morning to the even more crowded bus ride home again it was a lesson in patience. Not to mention the full face make-up and a desperate search for dress socks this morning.

I attempted to get some vanilla herbal tea at Teaopia after work but the downtown store is down to practically nothing as it awaits it's transformation into Teavana sometime in October. I guess I'll have to order it online.

Then I had to run to La Senza to get a few new bras. Then I zipped to Mountain Equipment Co-Op as I needed a cleaning kit for the bladders in my hydration pack and I also wanted to get the magnetic holder so the nozzle doesn't flap about as I run. I also picked up a head lamp as it will get progressively darker.

Then I found this

I am constantly untangling my headphones, I love that it clips on to things as well. I can clip it my bag or clip it to a zipper if I don't want the entire cord unrolled. I will test it out soon.

Now on Tuesday I didn't get back to camp until 8 pm, Wednesday I flew home an hour later and got home just before 8 with a very ill advised decision to stop at DQ for supper.

Today was again a long day but thanks to walking all over downtown I hit my Nike + goal.

Tomorrow I will head to the gym for a run and Iron Reps. I was checking the class schedule at my gym and I see they've made some changes.

My Zumba class in how an hour earlier, following my HIIT Cardio and then Iron Reps. Well that kind of messes me up for Saturday. Then I thought do I want to do 3 classes back to back - is that insane. I guess I'll have to try it to see.

Hope you had a good Thursday.

Hugs!!

2nd day of weight training

That is some sort of record for me since I worked out with a trainer almost 3 years ago.

Tonight was 5 rounds of:
10 Dumbbell Swings/Thrusters 10lbs
15 Dumbbell Squats 10lbs each hand
15 Sit ups on the ball
15 push ups on the bench

Whoa I was sweating like crazy after that. I could also feel some muscles from Saturday.

Tomorrow is a run day.I will stick toy workout plan this week.

Hope you enjoyed your holiday Monday!

Hugs!!!

Long Slow Day

Today was my LSD run, long slow day run/walk. Now I knew it might be a wee difficult as my last run was one week ago.

The goal today was 6 miles. It was perfect weather, not too hot and fall in the air. I love fall.

I started out with 1.5min run/1.5min walk, now that's a new interval that I should have started on Tuesday last week. It was kind of silly to start that on LSD day but I did 3 intervals of that and then dropped to 1 min run/ 2 min walk. I kept that up for 4 miles then walked the last 2.

I kept thinking if I'd only kept up better with the training I would not be so misreable right now. I was out with my hydration pack today (last time I used it was for the Honolulu Marathon a loonngg time ago) as I wanted to see if I liked that better then the bottles around my waist/hips (which sometimes feels like I'm running with an inner tube). That did add little weight to my back and again it was the first run in a week so I don't know why I thought it should be better. I snapped out of the negative thoughts and focused on what can I do now to make this better going forward. After all it was long slow day the goal was to hit the distance which I did.

A huge component is to keep up in the training and another huge component is to be lighter. I set a loafty goal for myself of losing 10lbs by Oct. 6 and another 10lbs by Nov.10. Now FitBloggin is in there but at least that's a trip that will factor in some workouts i.e. zumba, crossfit, jump start, 5K. It is technically do-able.

I didn't wake up too sore from my foray into weight training yesterday but I have a sneaky suspicion I'll be more sore tomorrow. As soon as I finish typing this I'm headed to a hot bath with epsom salts.

Here is today's deets:
6.10 miles/ 1:28:02/932 calories burned/163-183 HR

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Back to the weights

Sort of a fuzzy picture as I was sitting in the last row of my WW meeting. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit. 

Another quote on the board today said "Habits are cobwebs first, cables last" 

I was up .8 today but I'm not disappointed. I missed last Saturday's weigh in because I went to a BBQ Friday night so I knew I'd see a gain. That's why my original plan was to weigh in the day before  In retrospect a really dumb idea. What I should have done is gone to that BBQ with a plan knowing I had to weigh in the next day. This past week was working on undoing the damage from last weekend. I won't be doing that this coming week or any other week. That just creates a vicious cycle anyway including treating Saturday as a treat day.  I'm ok with a treat not the whole day. 

Saturday weigh ins just make more sense for me so that's a fact to build habits around. 

I will get what I put in. Habits must become as iron clad as possible. 

After weigh in I headed to the gym. I love that my gym is pretty cheap plus newly renovated. What I don't love is every long weekend there are no classes the entire weekend. Now they normally don't have classes on Sundays unless it's a special pay extra program. Those can actually be quite interesting but i've never tried one yet. Today would normally have been Iron Reps and Zumba. 

I've read a bit of Superbodies and caught a bit of The Doctors plus I just know that weight training is important to my goal of getting fitter especially now that I'm 40. 

I made up a weight training routine for today using Smart Girls Do Dumbbells but when I got there I realized the gym had also added some new free weights so I readjusted my plan inspired by a trainer I had a few years back. It was at World Health downtown, not cheap and I didn't realize at the time but the workouts were based on Crossfit. I did really enjoy them but a company gym then opened which was incredibly cheap, then I went a site based job. That World Health nor the company gym are open on weekends. Alas Spa Lady (now owned by World Health). 

So I today I did:

Bicep curls 10lbs

Shoulder press 10lbs

Dumbbell thrusters started with 10lbs but too easy, upgraded to 35lb kettle bell

Skull Crushers 20lbs

Chest press 20lbs

Dead lifts 60lbs

Crunches on a stability ball

3 sets - 10 reps, 15 reps, 20 reps 

Plus I walked to WI, then walked 15 min on treadmill, rowed for 5min as a warm up, then walked home. 

I was facing the mirror while doing the weights and the reflection I saw was focused and strong. 

I did keep a notebook of all those workouts I did with the trainer so now to plan something for Monday & Wednesday. A crossfit gym is not an option for my schedule so that notebook will keep me going for now. Then there's always You-Tube.  I found something called Sandbells at the gym today and had to google them when I got home & watched a demo on You-Tube. There is a crossfit gym next to the hangar I fly out of but still not an option being home for 3 days a week. At any rate this was only day one a habit has yet to be established. I am pretty geeked that there will be a crossfit workout at FitBloggin. 

Hope you're enjoying your Saturday. 

Hugs!!!!

Discipline - Semper Fidelis

I swear the last few days where 48hrs each. Maybe it was because of the full moon.

When I worked in a staffing agency full moons always brought out the rather unusual applicants and scenarios.

At any rate this week has been 4 days of 13hr to 14hr hour days due to a series of late meetings which played havoc with my training schedule. Food wise hasn't been horrendous so that's a plus as I'm dangerous when I'm tired.

Every day ended with me wiped and heading straight to bed, on Wednesday I thought I might be coming down with something but that passed - thankfully.

This morning I was reading my blog roll and I follow a website called Coach Your Mind, subtitle Strength Training for a Mental Game. Today there was a link to a YouTube video put out by SB Nation titled the Core of Sports. Each video features an athlete who encompasses the tenets of the Marine Corp, you know Semper Fi (always faithful). This series focuses more on discipline, mental and physical strength. The most recent in the series features a lacrosse player which I thought was kind of cool. I played lacrosse in high school. There's also one with a professional soccer player and of course a football player.



Watching a few these just reminded me that discipline and strength are an important part of weight loss/ fitness journey. No one is going to do this for me, it's all about what I put in. The important part that still goes along with the Marine theme is support in this case. Support myself with positive thoughts, positive self talk, learn from mistakes and be better.

One learning from this week is I need to book my workouts like meetings. I never miss a meeting and organize my day with my outlook calendar. I need to look at the calendar and also plan the workouts. It's funny I do book my lunch hour in my calendar so I guarantee a break in the day. When I have late meetings, that means a workout in the am. The plan is simple make it work.

This weekend the plan is simple - I need to get organized, like organize my closet, defrost my mini freezer do things that support organization in my life and not bring more chaos. I went to Walmart today and got some closet organizer to tame the jungle of my closet. My downstairs mini fridge needs a serious defrosting and then I can focus on filling it with healthy frozen options which seriously helps my only being home for 3 days.

I even started a FitBloggin pack list and things to do list as I need to have everything ready and sorted. I will not have a lot of time between work and flying to Baltimore.

I hope you all have a pretty fantastic Friday.

Hugs!!

The right fuel

I'm going to call this a duh moment as opposed to an aha moment as I should really have figured this out earlier. My runs are directly impacted by what fuel I put in my body...duh.

I had the BBQ on Friday which was completely off plan then yesterday had another get together with friends and yet again completely off plan so today's run was definitely meh. I more or less put gas in diesel engine. In fact after 3 run intervals my body was not into it so I walked the rest of the way. I am a fast walker.

I was committed to completing the mileage goal no matter the time. Today was 5 miles/ 8 KM.

In total: 5.26 miles, 1:16:13, 656 calories burned, Avg pace 14:29, Avg HR 155, Max HR 176

Funny how today's pace smoked my run/walk pace on the treadmill when I was using the Nike Sports Watch. Today I used the Garmin 601 (satellite). Mind you I have realized I run faster outside then on the treadmill.

During those 5 miles I did have another self talking to about how I will get what I put in. This week will be focused on what I put in from nutrition to training. Last week was rough I'd like to blame hormones as that time of month is always snackapalooza, however I always had a choice.

I can't believe FitBloggin is in less then a month.

Lately my mind has been drifting to the Halloween Howl on Oct 20, mainly because I don't know what to wear. I perused pictures from 2011 and some people dress up, and some don't. I want to dress up because I love Halloween. Once again due to my work schedule I'll miss out on handing out the candy to the kids, mind you I find less and less kids do the traditional trick and treating, so this run is my chance to embrace Halloween.

I'm considering a princess theme with run tutu. I just think that'd be easier to put together. I did see an awesome costume on Pinterest. It was R2D2 made up with a bustier, tutu and little hat - probably better for warmer weather.

I should sign off and get to laundry, but like I said this week is focusing on what I put in.

Hope you have a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Look what came

They're here....

The Moo Mini Cards arrived. I ordered them for FitBloggin as that just seemed like a good idea. What's not incredibly clear in this picture is there are little file folders - mine & theirs so that's cool a place to keep cards of others.

 I ordered 400 of them as that was the best deal so not sure how many to bring to FitBloggin but probably lots. I'm new at blogger conferences.

Here is the key design, I'm delighted. As I mentioned before the key spoke to me as my goal is to hit goal at Weight Watchers and receive the gold key plus I intend to buy myself a Tiffany Key to mark the occasion.

Here's the other side, that avatar is on this blog, plus my twitter account. I stuck to my real name, where I'm from, blog address, twitter name and an email account.

I got the purple carrying case but it doesn't hold that many cards so we'll see how that goes. I bought a a little Hello Kitty tin when I was in Vegas and that might work better.

It came with a deal for my friends, hopefully you can read this but the code is 4SEMBT to get free shipping on your first order. I'm pretty sure that is US only as I did order them from the US but my fellow Canadians could probably try it.  

Before FitBloggin I do intend to write an introductory post and maybe even make it a vlog. Not sure at this time.

No drive by weigh in today as my meeting ran late. Tomorrow is looking sketchy as well.

I didn't run today as I had to work. This morning was pouring rain add in people coming down with flu like symptoms around me I didn't want to chance it. 5 miles on tap for either tomorrow or Sunday.

I had a good time at my co-workers BBQ today until the smoke from the smokers outside started to waft indoors. I'm wicked sensitive to smoke so I made my exit.

I did have a wee bit too much to drink...Bacardi Breezer...drink of the devil.

Alas I'm to bed soon. Tomorrow I must bake at a friends house as she has a freezer full of raspberries.

Hope you had a fantastic Friday.

Hugs!!

Sometimes you need a self talking to

Today is a run day.

Yesterday I talked about how today would be a run day.

Today I didn't feel like running so when I got back to camp I had dinner. My original plan was to grab something to go - intending to run first.

Then on my long walk to my wing I gave myself a mental talking to. I have a half marathon in November, the FitBloggin 5k in September and the Halloween Howl 5K in October. I got to my room, changed and hit the treadmill.

The stats are courtesy of the Nike Sports Watch and foot pod.

56:20
3.62 miles
15:35/mi (not sure if the calibration is right but speed was not my priority)
558 calories burned
Avg HR 157

Masterchef was my entertainment during the workout. All in all it felt good.

Next run day is Friday, normally my day off but I have meetings so I need to be organized. My plan now run early as first meeting is at 10am. I have a BBQ Friday afternoon. I'm thinking about doing a drive by weigh in on Friday.

We shall see.

Hope your Tuesday rocked!!

Hugs!

Dusting off the cobwebs

That would be the cobwebs of activity.

On Friday I resurrected my half marathon training as it needed to be resurrected. I had thought about going to the gym but realized soon enough that will be a necessity when snow starts so why not enjoy the weather. I decided to go with my new Mizuno Wave Alchemy shoes.

3.14 miles, 43:43, 13:56/mi, 408 calories burned, Avg HR 167, Max HR 187. When I started out I did the walk/run ratio of 1:30-1:30 which is week 3 of the C25K app I have. I did that 4 times and realized it was too tough so I backed up to week 1 - 1 min run and 2 min walk. When I got home I consulted the app and it even suggested I start back at the beginning.

Saturday was off to weigh in and I was down 3.2, whoo hoo and it wasn't a perfect week either. Not that perfect weeks are entirely realistic I could have been a bit more diligent.

My friend was knocked out by the flu so I didn't go to Taste of Calgary instead I reintroduced myself to the gym. Looks like all the renos are done and it's quite nice. I went to Zumba and Iron Reps for the first time in months. I started walking on the treadmill as I waited for Zumba to start. Zumba was ridiculously fun and I once again found myself smiling all the way through, mostly because I was laughing at myself.

Then it was Iron Reps which is super similar to Bodypump classes. You work on one muscle group per song. I really like this workout as it makes weights interesting for me. As it's been months I stuck to beginner weights. Whoa I need to work on upper body. There definitely parts where I could have done more weights like biceps and back.

Total time in the gym 1:59:01, calories burned 737, Avg HR 120, Max Hr 156. I also walked there and back so earned a total of 14 AP

My left foot was sore after this so I elevated it and cleaned off the pvr a little. I treated myself to pizza for dinner as I had no desire to cook.

Today is my long run day but as I'm resurrecting my half marathon training my plan was 4 miles today. I made sure to head out early before it got too hot.

4.41 miles (includes warm up and cool down), 1:02:41, 603 calories burned, Avg pace 14:13/mi, Avg HR 159, Max HR 181. Today I went with the Nike Lunarglide +4.

I blended the chocolate WW smoothie mix, with 1 cup skim milk and 1 TBSP peanut butter in my Vita-mix as my recovery drink/ breakfast. I had a cup of coffee pre run. It was thick and pretty good though next time I might add some water to thin it out.

I've loving the new Garmin

I forgot to mention I finally purchased Road ID.

I opted for the rubber version and extra bands were a buck so I got two extra. Purple and green are my favourite colours and black goes with everything.

The plan for the rest of the week is to keep tracking, run again on Tuesday and add cross training on Monday and Wednesday. Monday will depend on my energy level as it's fly to work day. Right now I'm thinking of walking on the treadmill. Wednesday I want to do a weight workout and I have some options I did record a couple of Iron Reps workouts on my phone, I also have the Harvey Pasternak DVDs in my camp room.

I hope you all enjoy your Sunday.

Hugs!!!!

Discipline

Felt like a long week and I realize it's only Thursday.

I flew home yesterday as I had to be in an all day meeting today.

The week started well with tracking. Monday due to flying in later I went to bed instead of the gym. Tuesday was a United Way event so my gym time was spent observing the Minute to Win It. It's so funny.

The scale was heading downward.

Then Wednesday with an hour later flight then normal I had chips on the plane, then I got home and I failed to plan what I was going to have for dinner so I snacked.

Today I had breakfast at home but these all day meetings are killer. You're trapped in a boardroom and at times you're a wee bored so why not snack on the catering. It was another long day.

I had a mini aha moment during the training. My company believes in Operational Discipline and as I looked at the key elements I realized it has more then just work benefits. I started to think of it terms of losing weight and getting fitter. So I changed it to Personal Discipline and it goes like this:

*Change a paper plan into a reality - an action program
*Achieve goals because improvement programs are implemented to their fullest
*Protect yourself from injury
*Ensure quality effort
*Focus on healthy

Tomorrow I can sleep in and then I'm off to the gym for some run/walking and rowing, and maybe the yoga class. We'll see when I get up.

We can do this.

Hugs!!

Unusual routine

Yesterday I chose to walk as opposed to walk/ run. The funny part my walk pace is faster then my run/walk pace.

In total it was 3.09 miles in 47min. Then I mowed the lawn for an hour. I scored my best Sunday yet on the Nike Fuel Band. I also tracked everything for 2 days in a row.

Today I didn't need to get up at 3:30am as I have meetings in the Calgary office today and I'm flying to site tonight.

I had it my head that meetings start at 9am, but I'm wrong it's 10am as there was some rescheduling This is fine as I'll avoid the height of rush hour. I was planning on leaving about 90min before to factor in the bus and the line up for coffee.

I was a little worried as my corporate clothes are in the back of the closet and I was really hoping my dress pants fit. They just fit... Whew. Yet another motivating factor.

My plan for lunch is Subway as I need to tango with the food court today. I knew I needed a plan or the call of the Wendy's would kick in.

I'll be at site for supper & scoped out the menu. It looks like salad for supper though I have 10pts planned.

I'm planning a walk/ run tonight on the treadmill.

Yesterday I ordered the mini cards for Fitbloggin. I went with a key design as the key is a recurring theme in my life. My goal is that key charm at WW to mark goal weight. I still plan on buying myself a Tiffany key pendant to mark the occasion.

My hotel and plane ticket were taken care of ages ago. Still need to get US cash and looking forward to the recommended pack list. Right now imagining a plethora of workout clothes.

Still about 5 weeks to go.

Hope all of you have a fabulous Monday!

Hugs.

Gaintaining - not anymore

I was reading my blog roll this morning and was reading Jack Sh*t's blog. A term he used totally hit home - gaintaining. That's exactly what I've been doing, not maintaining but gaintaining.

This week's weigh in struck straight to the heart - up 3.4 lbs. So that's a little over a pound per week.

Every time I go to my Dad's house I'll see some sort of gain as my routine is completely off, but in the past I just would get right back on plan when I got home. That didn't happen this time, instead I kept my "vacation mentality" rolling. In fact pretty much since Tinkerbell I haven't been 100%. Sometimes 90%, 50% or 10%. Consistency hasn't been my strong suit.

Well not anymore.

This has just proven to me that I'm dangerous on my own. The other day I actually had the thought maybe I should try online WW again. The last time I did that was a disaster and not for me. I need structure and I need to weigh in weekly on someone else's scale. The accountability of that scale at my WW meeting helps tremendously.

At the meeting yesterday I discovered the leader that I'm iffy about is not the leader anymore. There is now a leader from the U.K who I guess recently moved to Alberta. She's pretty funny which I enjoy. She is heading back to the U.K for a few weeks and iffy leader is her sub. Next week I plan to weigh in on Friday.

The meeting itself was pretty empty and I'm thinking there are a few others in vacation mode. I'm super curious if the Canadian meetings will be getting this Activelink I keep hearing about from US WW people.

Nike has a challenge going on today: Find Your Greatness. The goal to make it the most active day in Nike+ history. I'll be heading out shortly with my Nike Fuel Band and Nike Sports Watch to make my contribution. Then later it will be mowing the lawn which earns some Nike Fuel as well.

I signed up for the JumpSport fitness trampoline event at Fitbloggin', I figured this is a good opportunity to try new things.

I'm not giving up instead I will shake myself off, get back up and go forward.

Hugs!

Day of Reckoning

Weigh in tomorrow and as I've already mentioned I know I'll see a gain.

I will not let the number get me down instead it will add fuel to the fire to get back on track and put my heart and soul into following the WW plan.

I need to have my reckoning with the scale as that gives me a point to begin.

I also know I will never see that number again.

Booyah!

Changing your dna

Yes it is 2:30 am and I can't sleep so why not blog.

I just watched a few more snippets of Superbodies on CTV Olympics. When I googled it I found that the host Dr. Wells also has a book. I guess they had this feature during the Vancouver winter games too and I never stumbled across it.

 

So I ordered it last night as I'm such a huge fan of the snippets online. Kinesiology has always been something that intrigues me but I missed that boat in University. I'm fascinated how our bodies respond to exercise and specific training.

On Saturday I'm going to weigh in for the first time in 3 weeks. It won't be pretty as I've tossed the plan out the window for those 3 weeks. No one to blame but myself. To me the important thing is recognizing that and getting the train back on the tracks.

It's time for a reset, the other night I had a dream that a few of us from work formed this fitness support group and called ourselves the avengers. The purpose was to have a personal goal over the next 3 months, share it with each other and encourage each other. Nothing complicated or competitive it was just setting up support. Well I told them about it and a few are interested. I think my subconscious triggered something to keep me focused at work. A camp environment can be challenging when the food is free and there's french fries and a plethora of desserts every single day.

I've also done a poor job of prioritizing the health and the fitness when my job's responsibilities increased. Don't get me wrong I love that this happened with the job. I just to prioritize the life part not just the work part.

My other plan to getting back on track is to go back to what's worked in the past. For me that's letting my inner data junkie rule. When I maintain spreadsheets and get intrigued with how things work (maybe this Superbodies thing has created a spark) I get more focused.

Focus is what I've been severely lacking lately. Tomorrow I do need to head into work for a short meeting so I should probably try to get some more sleep.

Hope you all had a great Friday!

Hugs!!

Memories

On Saturday there was a sort of high school reunion. It started on Facebook as we all are in the process of turning 40. The invite was sent to me and I'll admit I was pretty surprised.

I have never been a social butterfly or had gaggles of friends. Even today I have a small group of friends but they are tried and true friends but they are all post high school friends.

I never had any intention of going to this "reunion" as I had no desire to connect with people who I haven't spoken to since high school. I didn't want to compare lives as one does at these events.

In high school I was shy, introverted, chubby and fairly low self esteem. Today I'm shy, introverted, working on the chubby and not as low self esteem. I don't gravitate to large group activities. Heck going to Fitbloggin on my own is not something I traditionally do. I'll have freak out post about that closer to the date. I'm excited to go but also nervous. Mind you going to the Tinkerbell Half by myself is also something I wouldn't do back in high school.

Those who know we really well would describe me as outgoing as once I know you and I'm comfortable I do become more outgoing and confident. Have I mentioned I'm a Gemini?

On Facebook I'm "friends" with a few high school classmates which always surprises me. I never befriend them they befriend me. What surprises me is I always felt invisible so the fact that they remember me is mind boggling.

A few people have posted pictures of the event and it's funny. Some look the same and some look so different.

I like myself better today then in high school. I'm more comfortable in my skin, a little more confident. I know I'm funny and smart. I would rather look forward then back.

Hope your Tuesday was spectacular.

Hugs!

Goosebumps

Now here's the reality of it, you don't want to be walking off with any regrets. 

Be annoyed, go cry. You're on the line between breaking point and breaking through.

In struggle you'll find strength, now GET OVER THAT LINE. Dig for that extra inch, take the best you can do and do better. 

Every second is a moment in time but this second is a moment in history. 

While waiting for my cab at 4am this morning the Olympic Powerade commercial came on and the words above were spoken with a rather inspiring musical score that gave me goosebumps. 

So with this commercial in my head I did hit the treadmill after work, however I am finding after being awake and functioning for 15 hours it's hard. Perhaps Mondays would be a better cross training day. I mostly walked on the treadmill tonight, I walk/ran for the first 15 min. 

All in 47 min, 2.95 miles, 15.57min/mile, 415 calories burned.

What further complicated my run tonight was when I got to camp I was hungry so I stopped for dinner first. Monday's are always a weird food day to plan due to the number of hours of being awake and somewhat functioning. So for the rest of the week I'm planning a run on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Tomorrow I want to go row or do the 5-Factor workout on DVD. 

I brought this thing with me this trip

This is the most genius contraption for tea that I've ever seen. You put loose tea and hot water in it, let it steep then when you're ready just place it over a mug and the tea drains into the mug. I bought one from Teavana which is the one pictured. I liked it so much I got another one for home from the now defunct Teopia (taken over by Teavana). 

Now I must go hop into the shower, then pjs as it's been a long day. 

Hope you had a great Monday.

Insert witty title

I got a little messed up on my days this weekend. For some reason I thought Saturday was Friday well what resulted was I missed weigh in as I thought I could weigh in this morning. I realized that Saturday was Saturday at 10am too late to weigh in. Duh. I think that was because I was downtown on Friday and I associate that with work.

On Saturday my friend and I were taking a road trip to central Alberta to visit a small town called Blackfalds that has a little grocery store that just happens to have the largest selection of Keurig K-cups in North America. Whoa, they carry over 400 different types. I didn't realize there was so many. They even import ones from Holland that look more like tea bags but a handy little attachments allows you to use them in the Keurig.

Well my friend and I pretty much stocked up for the year. I find most stores don't carry a huge selection and my preference are the flavoured coffee. I have ordered online but then pay shipping.

We also went to see Total Recall on Saturday. It's a fun movie, I enjoyed it.

Today I had to run to the mall to pick up ingredients for cupcakes. I'm going to back yard barbecue on Friday so I said bring cup cakes. I will weigh in on Friday before the BBQ, I'm putting it in my iPhone so I don't forget.

Right now I'm watching Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition. I enjoy this show. What I like is the person still needs to live their regular life while focusing on changing behaviours. They still have jobs to work and are surrounded by the same surroundings. On every single episode there comes a time where someone struggles with loss of motivation. The encouraging thing is they re-commit and get back on track. I love that.

I must head to bed soon so not sure I'll last till the end of this episode. I am working tomorrow even though it's a civic holiday as I just had a week off so figured I'd work. It should be quiet so a good day to catch up.

I did buy a planner today and wrote down the training plan for no time goal and for if you've done a half marathon before. It was 8 months ago that I did my last half so I'm not new but I didn't keep up the training either. I'm going to try using this to note how I feel with each workout. Note things that are too long to note in my WW tracker.

Hope you had a lovely Sunday.

Hugs!!!!

Re-lighting the flame of motivation

A couple of posts ago I wrote a line that went like this - training for the Olympics of life and that's been in my  head more and more this week.

What all us weight loss/ fitness bloggers are doing to get healthier is something we'll have to maintain for life.

I love the Nike ads "Find your greatness", especially this one.




How awesome is this as so many of us have done races from 5K to marathons where we were not the fastest and even just talked ourselves through it well I know I have. The important part is we all got off the couch and did it. Some think Nike is exploiting this 12 year old kid, but the way I think about it is this, if this kid inspires someone to get up and move well done Nike. The other thing I like about the "Find your greatness" is we are so often our own worst enemy. How about we turn all that negative energy we create into finding our greatness. Might just be crazy enough to work.

Still watching the Olympics whenever I get a chance and I adore a feature on the Canadian CTV broadcast called Superbodies, which breaks down what the muscles and ligaments have to do for an athlete to compete in a specific sport. They've covered things like diving, swimming, rings in gymnastics, beam in gymnastics, rowing and weight lifting. If you can check it out here, this is the Women's 8 rowing but you can see the other ones too.

I think it really is time to retire the Garmin 405CX for now and make use of the Nike Sports Watch, I discovered that Polar makes a heart rate strap that can actually talk to Nike + watch so I ordered that. This will be perfect for camp.

Today was a pretty relaxed day I woke up at 7am, had some water went back to bed and woke up at 10am. Had oatmeal with "high quality" dark chocolate chips, I put 8 chips in the oatmeal and found it to be way to chocolaty so I ate 1/3 of it.

Tonight I went out to dinner with two old team mates and it was lovely to see them.

Tomorrow I'm going run/walking in the morning. I might be heading on an adventure to a very small town near Red Deer in search of a tiny grocery store that sells the most varieties of Keurig coffee in Canada. Normally I order online as I'm a flavoured coffee kind of girl.

I foresee a movie and yet another dinner in there too.

Hope you all enjoyed your Friday!

Not Dead, just tired

Hello my friends,

Apologies for dropping off the face of blogger for the week. It was hard to adjust not being able to have a nap whenever I wanted after a week of doing just that.

Every night I was in bed by 8pm. My eating has been terrible as I was still in vacation mode. I did run on Wednesday but my Garmin 405CX decided not to cooperate so I have no data.

I found out one my friends who is roughly 10 years older than I am might have to have open heart surgery. How freaking scary is that. I've been thinking about that a lot since I found out yesterday.

It makes me realize I'm playing Russian roulette with this lackadaisical attitude I've had lately. I remember being focused at one point and that needs to come back.

So it's time to regroup, remember what's important and just do it.

Promise to blog more often.

Hugs!!

London 2012 - let the games begin

Back in Calgary safe and sound, and ready to get back in to a routine.

Time to charge all the electronics i.e. Garmin & Nike Fuel.

Did you watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? I admit there were parts I liked - the industrial revolution and the lighting of the cauldron. There were parts I didn't care for like the teen dance party.

I find the games themselves hugely inspiring. It's not all about the winning either. I am rooting my little heart out for Team Canada. Go Canada Go!!!!

For me the inspiration comes from how they win - humbly and graciously, how they handle defeat - again graciously then let it go & focus on the next event and all the work they've put in just to get to the games.

When they had a bad day they still trained. They didn't just train physically but also mentally. When something wasn't working they fixed it.

Hmm some lessons to be learned that's for sure.

I didn't get in to town in time to go to weigh in today. I did get some groceries so I can prepare a healthy lunch to take to work on Monday.

I was walking in Walmart and of course all the back to school stuff is out. I used to love back to school time. Something about a fresh start and new notebooks. I saw all these day timers and it gave me an idea. I think I'll keep a training log. Right now I do note stuff on my WW tracker but I really haven't been paying attention to trends. I would like to have some record of improvement to back and look at.

It's 8 weeks and by weeks I mean weigh ins to Fitbloggin and 15 weeks to RunDisney Wine & Dine Half.

It's time to train for the Olympics of life.

Hope you all had a great Saturday.

Hugs!!!

Time to think

Besides naps and rediscovering daytime tv I've also had a ton of time to think at my Dad's house.

I've been thinking. I've been thinking about priorities and commitment.

My commitment to weight loss lately has been 80-20. The 80 has been thinking and the 20 has been doing. The doing needs more focus that's for sure.

I've been watching Dr Oz. I have a tough time with this show as he's always recommending unusual supplements or teas that may or may not have the proof to back up the claims. Today was a repeat about 3 important health tests. One he talked about was waist size and how it should be half your height in inches. So I'm 5'4 in theory my waist should be minimum 32in. Well it's not but what that brought home to me is I'm now 40 and it's about time I get super serious about getting healthier.

I'm taking a week off of half marathon training by visiting my Dad and I'm ok with that as it's so close to the beginning. I needed the time to figure out what's been going on with my foot and take a minute to breathe. At Dad's there is nothing light. It's regular ground beef,butter and coffee cake every afternoon. There is also no evening snacking (a particular downfall for me). It's funny how I notice that because I can't mindlessly head for the fridge or cabinet here.

I came across Chirunning on Kobo which takes getting your head around but i like the theory and will test it when i get home. When I return home focus must be 100%.

That means making food (as in tracking & eating right) and training must be the priority. This means better scheduling on my part.

There was a time were I put everything in my outlook calendar at work. I'd schedule snacks, meal time and activity. I'll be doing that again.

Lately at camp I've been eating in the cafeteria for lunch on Mondays. I used to bring my lunch from home. The camp caterer doesn't post NI info on lunch but they do on dinner. So I'll be packing again this Monday. Sure you could try to pick healthy options but Mondays are such a long day especially as I'm up by 3:30am it makes preplanning even more important. It's so easy to choose fries when your exhausted and don't care for anything else offered. On Mondays I've typically shot my day by 1pm due to lunch in the cafeteria.

I've also been distracted by the social aspect of camp lately in regards to going for dinner with friends. My prime workout time is immediately when I get to camp. As I also find it better to workout on an empty stomach. If I go to dinner first I get distracted by the conversation, as my coworkers are some seriously funny people, and out goes the workout. What I need to keep in mind is this just not a workout. I am training for an event. I need to think like an athlete. What better time then to be inspired by the Olympics. I get goose bumps with all these theme songs on all the networks. I think about how it's the athlete's job to focus and be committed. I need to think of my races as my Olympics not to win but be respectful of.

My social time can be post training or at lunch.

I got invited to go camping next weekend. I know if I go that throws 2 training days. So I will pass. Now I haven't camped since I was a teenager so while I suspect it would be fun it would also be so off plan. I need to learn how to make sacrifices. Have I mentioned I'm an only child and single so that's not 100% natural to me. Mind you I was never spoiled and a lesson I learned repeatedly growing up was you need to work for everything you accomplish. Now career wise I can do that now I need to but the same effort into losing weigh and getting fitter.

I do hope all of your week is going well so far.

Hugs.

Naps galore

Day 2 at Dad's and I think I've had 4 naps and slept through the night - which rarely happens. I tell you it's the country air.

I opted to spend this week just relaxing. My left foot is feeling better as it's been bothering me for awhile.

I'm about half way through "Chirunning" and I'm definitely going to give this a try. It's all about tweaking your running style to incorporate the philosophy of Tai Chi. Using gravity as opposed to working against it. I don't have my head completely wrapped around it but that's my plan.

The cats remember me or remember I have access to their good.

Hope your week goes great!!!

Hugs!

Cleaning machine

Whoa I was a chore devil this morning. I weeded flower beds, watered flower beds, dusted, vacuumed and started mega laundry day.

I'm washing all the bedding today as my Dad is coming in tomorrow. I'm also using my ridiculously fancy dryer to steam clean all the sofa pillows, bed pillows, comforters and quilts. Still have a few loads to go.

I'm now the proud owner of a slightly preloved Canada Goose long winter coat. It's a touch small so that's some serious motivation before winter.

I've been seriously lacking motivation, well there's a flicker but I need a raging inferno.

Off to my Dad's on Sunday which is kind of like going on a retreat. He lives on a acreage and the nearest town is a little over half an hour away. It's so quiet there. I do sleep well there as there are no neighbours, no cars and no buses going by. plus it's got the country air going for it. I'll also see the cats. It looks like we're down to four. Dusty has disappeared. It's not uncommon for them to take off and wander back months later. They are feral/ farm cats. My buddy Fred (my favourite of all the cats) was there last week so I hope he sticks around. The two oldest male cats (Fred and Spook) take turns being around the house.

Running is pretty much out this week as there's high bear activity in the area. The only option would be to go outside alone. Instead I'm packing a skipping rope. I figure it's cardio building and easy to do close to the house or in the basement if it rains.

It's also a week to self reflect. I loaded my Ipad with books on running, meditation and of course some silly summer stuff (Harlequin).

So I doubt I'll blog until I'm back next Sunday, well if anything interesting happens maybe.

I just wanted to wish you all a good week.

Hugs!!!

Day 1 again

I'm starting my training count back at Day 1 as I want to see if I can create a trend.

My alarm did go off at 4am then I managed to hobble to the bathroom. My left foot was achy and my left calf was tight so I grabbed some Voltaren and went back to bed for an hour. I decided to run after work. It is a night race I'm training for after all

I must say so far not overly impressed with the Nike Sports Watch.

The battery runs out fast and then the date reset to 2010 and the time went back an hour.

According to the watch I did:
total time: 45:07
3.15 miles
14.19/mile
443 calories burned

Just a quick post as it's been a long day. Hope you had a great Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

Back to training

So my training plan got a little messed up with going to Stampede on Friday. I did go to the gym yesterday.

I walked there and back. Got messed up on the treadmill. I bought the Nike GPS sports watch as a replacement for my Garmin I had at camp. My theory was it was cheaper. On it you can set intervals so while I was setting the watch up I set an interval. Unfortunately I set an interval that wasn't the one I planned on doing. So I got completely messed up as I was also using my gym boss. I kept going though.

It was a rough run as it was fairly humid when I walked to the gym I was already sweaty when I got there. All in all I hit my mileage goal. I've reset the watch to count 1 mile laps instead of intervals. I'll leave the Gym Boss for that.

Now normally today would be a run day but as I ran yesterday I wasn't to keen on that. I was so tired today. I woke up at 2am and had a restless sleep.

Now my other challenge is my schedule as I have late meetings for the next 2 days so to avoid excuses I've set the alarm for 4am tomorrow to get my run in. I'm telling you this do I have to do it.

There can't be any excuses anymore my eye is on the prize. So workout clothes are set best my bed and runners are untied and ready to put on. Bring It!!!!!!

Hope you had a good Monday.

Hugs!!!!

Stampedin' with Nike Fuelband

Hello All
The last few days have flown by. So flew home on Thursday with an hour and a bit flight delay due to some miscommunication with the plane and our aviation department.

On Friday I went to the Stampede and had lots of fun. We watched a pow wow at the Indian Village watched the chuck wagon races and the Grandstand Show with Paul Brandt. I little disappointing that he preformed only 3 songs but mind you he was a guest performer. Now getting home was an adventure and a half. There was no cab to be found so I tried to take the train downtown. Well 3 packed trains went buy and I realized that wasn't going to work. Then I walked downtown in hopes of catching a cab still no luck. I found a city bus I could still take as thankfully they run late during Stampede. I got home at 12:40pm. One good thing is I never had to fear for my safety walking around by myself after midnight due to the gobs of people around. 

Now I had intended to go to weigh in Saturday but I was so exhausted when I got home that I didn't set my alarm and slept right through it.

Now I promised you my thoughts the Nike Fuelband.

I'll start with the pros:

It's a nice piece to wear as it looks more like a bracelet.
The display is great and easy to use.
The display of lights is another indicator of how close you are to  your goal as when you get closer the lights are green.
With on click on the button you can cycle through seeing your fuel, calories burned, steps and the time of day. When I bought it they fit me for it. It comes in small, medium and large. The small worked best for me with a little spacer. It comes with a spacer so you can adjust your fit. It should stay pretty still on your wrist.

So you can plug the band directly into your computer or use USB cable that it comes with. When you first get it you need charge it either via computer or I used the USB cable with my iPod wall charger. You also need to download Nike+Connect and have a nikeplus.com account. However if you've ever used the Nike foot pod with your iPod or iPhone you probably have an account already. Once that's all done you pick your goal. You can pick one of their options 2000 if you're not very active, 3000 if you plan at least one workout a day and so on. You can also set your own goal but I'd advise figuring out your rhythm with activity before you do that. It also tracks steps, and calories based on you entering your height, weight and gender when you first set up your Fuelband. You even tell it what wrist you'll wearing it on. 


Now the Nike Fuel part is a bit of a mystery it's a formula created by Nike that translates into "fuel". It has something to do with the part that tracks KM or Miles, whenever my movement comes close to 3K that seems to line up with 3000 Nike Fuel. I'm not sure how that works with those who have it set to imperial and use miles. 


I love syncing it to the free app on my iPhone because I adore this little guy:

When you hit certain milestones he shows up in an animated little feature that celebrates your success. He's shows up online as well on nikeplus.com.

Now the device itself works off your arm movement so kind of like a pedometer attached to your wrist.

So the data itself is a little iffy.

On Friday I earned 5747 in Nike Fuel and that was mostly due to clapping at the chuck wagon races and grandstand. Yes I was walking around the whole day but I wasn't exactly going fast. Earlier in the week when I was in my camp room I was super close to 3000 (which is the goal I set) so I danced for a song and managed to squeak over.

What I do really like about it is it acts like an anchor for me. I'm more conscious of my movement while wearing this for example I'll get up from my desk and take walk around the floor to encourage a bit more activity and I do get a sense of glee when it flashes "GOAL'' at me. 

So for me it's a keeper as it just encourages me more. I'll wear it and something a little more data specific like a heart rate monitor, Nike Sports watch or Garmin for half marathon training.

Now it's supposed to launch in Canada this fall so we'll see if it sells like crazy as it did in the US. When it first launched there it sold out online. I bought mine when I was last in Vegas in June at a Nike store.  Apparently they had just received a shipment. I would think they're more available now.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday and let me know if you have any questions on my thoughts on the Fuel Band.

Hugs!!!

Day 3 - damn those brownies

While my activity has been fairly good so far this week, 3 days in a row hasn't happened in a while, my tracking has been less then stellar. I did write everything down just didn't add it up.

Today I had a noon meeting that I knew was catered so I didn't pack a lunch in the morning. That was a bad decision I should have packed. There where these brownies well more cake like that were amazing. They were small and that would have been fine if I had one. I had 5. What the heck?

I know it was emotionally fueled. You see today there was a work Stampede party I really wanted to go to and I wasn't allowed to. Ok I sort of get it. It's Wednesday so that's 2 days away from site. I did say I'd fly back on Thursday but still no.

Now the part that annoyed me a little. The person who said I couldn't go went to the party.

Yeah

Well I do have Friday to look forward to as that's when I'll head to the grounds and take in the chuckwagon races and the Grandstand show.

Tonight was run night and thanks to those brownies I ran out of steam at the 30 min mark. I stayed on the treadmill for another 30 min though. I was supposed to do a 45 min run/walk.

My Nike sensor wasn't working and I actually find Nike + iPod app not very accurate at any rate. For a data junkie like me I need consistent data.

So the other day I ordered a new Garmin. I don't know why but I trust Garmin more. I also ordered a new water bladder for my hydration pack. It's funny for Tinkerbell I had to train in winter. For Wine and Dine in the crazy heat of the summer so I decided to make use of the hydration pack I used for the Honolulu marathon a bizillion years ago.

So home day tomorrow. Hope you had a great Wednesday.

Day 2

Ok I'll admit when you've been off plan for a few weeks it's a wee struggle to get back on plan. I had an altercation with potato chips today. Oh well the important part is to keep going in the right direction.

This morning my left foot/ankle was mega sore. I was hobbling in my camp room. By the end of the day I was walking normally with just a wee bit of soreness. I do wonder if my love affair with Mizuno Wave Alchemy runners is over. Yet it's only my left foot that has issues lately Tomorrow is another run day and I brought the Wave Inspire pair with me so we'll see how it goes.

I am very intrigued by the Nike Lunarglide 4 +, almost bought a pair online last night but held off for going the traditional route like going to a store and trying them on.

Tonight I did yoga for the first time in a long time. I put in my go to yoga DVD - Namaste Yoga by Kate Potter. It was a television series so the dvd is divided into episodes I did the warm up and 12 min flow of Exalted Warrior then the warm up , 12 min flow and savasana of Sun Moon.

I was happy with how much I remembered but I definitely lost some of my yoga mojo. We shall see how I feel tomorrow.

Still wearing the Nike Fuelband and will write a review by this weekend.

Hope you had a great Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

Day 1 Half Marathon Training

I'll admit I was a little nervous about today - back to training and that I've pretty much done nothing consistent since training for Tinkerbell in January.

This time around I'm using Jeff Galloway's training as he designs training for RunDisney.

Tonight was 45 min. I decided to try 2 min walk / 90 sec run which is C25K week 2. It felt fantastic. I don't know if it was because I listened to my country play list as I've been obsessed with country music thanks to Stampede.

I grew up with country but traditionally run with more dance/ pop music. Well 45 min flew by.

I'm following the plan for those who've done a half marathon before. I thought I might even be ambitious with that as the last run was in January.

My plan is to do the 2 more runs this week with the same walk/ run ratio and then increase the run by 30 sec or reduce the walk by 30 sec. In order to follow C25K it should be decrease the walk by 30 sec before increasing the running.

Tomorrow my cross training will be yoga.

Now to focus on Day 2. Hope you had a great Monday!

Hugs

Yahoo weekend

Let me back track to Friday, Jersey Boys was spectacular and a whole lot of fun.

I was surprised how many Four Seasons songs I knew. Of course my brain retains millions of irrelevant pieces of information that every once in awhile come in handy.

Let me back track a little before the show. I did go to weigh in and I have to say I really enjoy the Friday noon leader, there was hardly anyone there but that was expected as it was the first day of the Calgary Stampede

I was up 1.2 over 2 weeks. I deserve it as I discussed in recent post.

Saturday was a crazy 3 malls in the same day in search of Western Wear, I was hanging out with 3 friends all who I met at work and I'm totally blessed to have met them. They are super funny and a delightful group of ladies. We were talking about my blog and I told them I don't really mention names of people and if I do it's just the first initial. Well they created blog identities for themselves. So here's a shout out to Mitzi, Lucky and Lola and I can't wait to chill with you ladies again.

I picked up everything that I had on my list so it was a successful shopping trip. I stopped in at the Running Room in Cross Iron Mills mall and asked about my recent issues with my Mizuno Wave Alchemy runners. Now I had already asked the guy at Sport Chek a few weeks ago and Mizuno Wave Inspire was recommended but I'm not enjoying them. So far I've only done a 30min run/walk on a treadmill with them so perhaps I'm speaking too soon. The Running Room guy said the same thing to try the Wave Inspire now I didn't tell him I already had them.

Next weekend I'm might wander down to a different Running Room and not tell them what I used before to see what they recommend. I've been considering Nike Lunarglide +3, the theory is that it adapts to your foot. I'll need to try them on see what's what. I know I don't want do the bulk of my half training in my current Wave Alchemy 10. I have the 9 version at work is cool for the treadmill and my last favourite runners. I don't know what happened with version 10 but they don't feel the same and I've been wearing them a lot so they're thoroughly tested. I've been wearing Mizuno Wave Alchemy since version 5.

Today was all about mowing the jungle lawn as it was guaranteed not to rain today. That was a good chunk of exercise as there was a portion of back lawn and behind my back fence that was almost 2 feet high due to all the rain.

I also weeded the flower beds and watered the flowers as it's going to +30C for the next few days that's 86F for you imperial followers.

I've worn the Nike Fuelband for the whole week and will post a more thorough review shortly. I wanted to wear it for a good chunk of time before giving my complete two cents.

Now it's laundry and taking it easy as I fly out tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is day 1 of Disney Wine and Dine training and I will blog all about that as you guys hold me accountable.

Alright hope you're having a delightful Saturday!!!

Crazy trip home and time for a reckoning

Wild flight home yesterday, not the flight itself but on the approach into Calgary this what we saw.

I don't think I've ever seen a thunder storm cell from the air before, I've certainly landed during them before.

You looked a little over the left and saw clear skies and where our plane actually was it wasn't raining at all. However we were headed straight for that dark cloud.

Then we landed and were told we couldn't get off the plane due to a lightening risk so we had to stay on the plane till the risk was over. A few minutes later it absolutely started to pour and then hail. There there was more hail and it was bouncing off the plane and we were all a little grateful that we're outside. We sat on the plane for almost an hour before we could get off.

Then wham the hail stopped and in the sky appeared a rather nice rainbow. When we were walking to the car it was like night and day all of a sudden it was back to sunny and warm but you could pick up the hail and make snowballs out of them.

So this week I actually hit the treadmill twice but there was hardly any running as I wound up going both times after dinner. Not a good idea. Tracking was so so but at least I actually wrote something down.

My lovely work friends gave me a ride home yesterday as we decided to go for dinner as one of things about working a fly in fly out schedule groceries are scarce as I'm away for 4 days a week.

We went Dairy Queen as it was on the way to my house and we were ridiculously hungry due our delay, yeah not the wisest choice.  Even worse I contemplated not going to weigh in today as I'm positive there'll be a gain. I have to go today as tomorrow I can't make the meeting. Don't worry I'm going. It's time to face the scale. So that's not till noon, so right now I'm watching the Calgary Stampede Parade on TV.

Half marathon training starts Monday and it's bang on focus from that point on. I think I might start over with the C25K and add it to the half marathon training. My training consists of 2 days running/walking for 45min, then a 3rd day is for the long distances. I want to add 2 cross training days in there plus a rest day. I know one cross training day will Iron Reps and Zumba at the gym. The other one I'll need to figure out in camp.

This weekend I'm quite the social butterfly which so unlike me. I'm off to Jersey Boys tonight and then tomorrow it's shopping for western wear (for Stampede) and my friends are going to Magic Mike. I know reviews are saying there's not much plot but we think it will still be fun girls night thing to do.

Enjoy your day!

Hugs!!

Dear Me - I'm back

Happy Canada Day!!!! Gosh we're only 145 years young. I hope my fellow Canadians, no matter where you are, enjoys the day. 

My Canada Day is very low key as I head back to work tomorrow and that alarm is going off at 3:30am. Today is all about household chores for me. 

It's also the first day of a new month which always inspires me. Yesterday I re-read a post I wrote in April called Dear Me-Enough. Today I have a new letter from my logical self.

Dear Me,
Hello again it's your logical self. We need to talk again.

I once again need to ask you - how badly do you want this? You continue to bounce and have bounced  yourself right back into the 180s. Why are you doing this? I know you know better, remember you've done it before and got to 168. I also know you want to be successful so what's stopping you.

Once again you created grand plans remember your Birthday and Vegas, they didn't quite work out did they. I'm not here to bring you down, I'm here to remind you that you can brush yourself off and get back at it.

You're off to a good start as you wrote up your training plan for Disney Wine and Dine, plus signed up for two additional races. Your excited about Fitbloggin' which is great. Now we need to work on the follow through.

You're tracking has been non existent so get back at it. Reacquaint yourself with the gym. In fact you're not going to wait till July 10 to start training, you're starting now so you can start to establish the routine. Dig out those stickers, you like stickers and tick off each day you've done your plan.

This weekend you skipped weigh in and please your logic on that was iffy at best, that can't happen anymore. So what you're not crazy about the leader on Saturday's, if you need to weigh in on Saturday just suck it up. Remember one of the reasons you like that meeting is for the other members and hey you can also go Friday at noon. You like that leader. Yeah the noon weigh in means you have to rethink a little especially as you've scheduled your long run days for Friday's but the good thing about that is you could make adjustments pending weather and schedule.

Listen to your body with my help when it comes to food, don't listen to my emotional buddy. Hey you can bond with that side watching sappy movies or reading sappy books. In terms of your weight loss goals I'm in charge from now on. Your paper journals have also been idle for awhile, get those back into your life to get the emotions out as I know you don't always want to blog about it. Hey, when you're in a group setting remember you're priority is to take care of you. If it's not going to get you healthy don't do it.

The most important thing I have to tell you is this - I believe in you and always will.

Me