Where does the time go

This week has flown by and I can't believe I haven't posted since Saturday.  I took the above picture as we were landing. It was so cloudy all you could see was the very top of the mountain range - that's that line in the middle.

I've been crazy busy work wise and all week I've gone in at 6am and left by 6pm or 7pm. The mega project I was working on is now done and I my excel and power point skills are now better then ever.

I managed to track 4/7 days so that's a bit of an improvement of late.

Today I had my physical and did not get any weight comments, the bump I feel on the left side is most likely a rib but my blood pressure is running a wee high.

The doctor told me that can be fixed by eating healthy, losing weight and being relaxed.

Yup, just a reminder to get back in gear and realize that this weight loss journey is not just about vanity but about making sure to live a full life.

I told him I need to get back into yoga and told him about my schedule a half marathon every 4 month plan and he was 100% behind that.

Did blood work and stuff so now the usual drill, if something comes up they call me.

I was super productive today though. My original plan was Dr. Appt, meet friend for coffee, go to Shopper's Drug Mart and then the bank.
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I realized when I got downtown that Shopper's opens early so got that done right away, minor heart attack when my debit card was declined but it turns out that was a national bank issue not my debit card was compromised.

Went to Dr appt, got blood work done then texted friend to see where we were meeting. Forgot there was a branch of my bank in the same building as my Dr so got that done while I was waiting for the response from my friend so got all my errands done before meeting my friend.

Oh and I got Bon Jovi tickets while waiting for blood work. Bon Jovi is coming to Calgary on April 2nd and I secured 5 tickets for my friends and I.

Swung by the bookstore to get a new journal.

I have a thing for journals. My chat with my friend was awesome. She talked about getting rid of the negativity and I realized my current journal is filled with too much negativity so tada. I like the cork, it's resilient and renewable a good start to focusing on the positive.

Christmas has hit the mall which feels a wee too soon for me. I remember back in the day when I worked retail the Christmas stuff comes out after Remembrance Day.

I had to take a picture of some Holt Renfrew's decorations as they do Christmas so well.

 How pretty is this

I loved the penguins

On the walk home from the bus frost was falling off trees and landing on my head but I was struck by how striking it was

 The tree from which the frost was falling on my head

My neighbors lilac tree

Had a nap at 3 and then had a very lovely chat with another friend who I haven't seen in ages.

That was my day.

Weigh in tomorrow and my goal this week is to track all the way till I get home from Disney World.

I got to Fort McMurray on Monday and Tuesday, back to site Wednesday, fly home Wednesday night then off to Orlando on Thursday so next weigh in after tomorrow isn't until Nov 17th. I fly home too late on Wednesday to catch that meeting.

What have all of you been up to?

Hugs!

Better

I've spent the last two days in pajamas just focusing on rest and liquids to get rid of this cold. I've had so many naps and so many cups of herbal tea it's ridiculous. I'm sure becoming a fan of Teavana.

I thought I had dodged the bullet only having mini symptoms until Thursday then it became a full on cold. I realize I'm also an awesome employee by being sick on my days off. It would really suck if I was in camp feeling yucky.

On Tuesday morning I went to the convenience store at camp and got a small pack of Tylenol cold meds, a small bottle of Listerine (best thing I've found for a sore throat), a pack of Tic Tacs and a bottle of orange juice - $22. You only buy things in this store if you have no other option as if I had bought the same things in Calgary probably half the price. I pretty much knew my hotel in Fort Mac was no where near a store. At site we pay Fort Mac prices plus the transportation fees to get it there.

The Tim Horton's is priced like the Northwest Territories, mind you it doesn't bug me as much to pay an extra 30 cents for coffee. It's all about your priorities.

Last night I was debating on whether to go to weigh in and left it to how I felt this morning. I wasn't feeling that great this morning so I opted to stay in bed. I also didn't want to be the sniffly one in the corner constantly interrupting by blowing my nose and that was totally how it was this morning not to mention just being miserable.

I need to be 100% soon as I have a lot to do this week and Disney Wine and Dine is just around the corner.

My training has taken a hit over the past week. Last week's long run was cancelled due to ice. Then Monday I worked late and my workout window passed as I wanted to be back to work super early on Tuesday, Tuesday had to rush to Fort McMurray and then the cold struck.

I fully intend to head out tomorrow as right now I feel way better and I haven't had to blow my nose for a few hours. It might just be walking but we'll see how my body reacts. Then I'm pretty much in tapering mode anyway.

I might head out later tomorrow. I'm not comfortable doing it in the dark in my neighbourhood to simulate the night race, not that my neighbourhood isn't safe but with all the snow and complicated by having to be up by 3:30am tomorrow. I might go early afternoon as opposed to first thing in the morning or stick to the morning as I might talk myself out of it by noon.

I have my plan to pretty much stay close to the hotel the first two days I'm in Disney World at any rate. I don't get there till late afternoon on the Thursday so I'll just check in and stay put. Friday will be the race expo then back to the hotel. Then Saturday morning the 5K, then nothing but rest, naps and relaxation till the night race. I won't make the same mistake I did at Tinkerbell wandering around the park forever the day before the race.

I definitely don't have any time goals for this race, I just want to finish in one piece.

So other than that not a lot to report.

Hope all of you are feeling well.

Hugs!

Officially sick & good to be home

Well my mini symptoms finally turned into a cold. The plan today is rest and plenty of fluids.

Hugs from a distance

Blah

That's how I feel today. You know the feeling when you think you're getting sick. That's me.

I've felt a wee off and this morning it felt like a sore throat was starting...nooooooooo.

I despise being sick so I go to Defcon 5 to get over it.

Yesterday I headed out for a run but didn't get far. It was like playing hopscotch as the sidewalks were super icy and not very visible. It was just a blechy day as it was cold and grey plus the feeling off. I turned back as I just felt it was a little too dangerous.

Got to site today and it is 100% winter. I so should have worn my snow boots. There is so much snow.

I should run tonight but now I think the runny nose is starting so I got an XL Peppermint Tea (that's like a thermos) from Tim Horton's and I'll be in bed soon.

I want to be 100% healthy for Orlando and just in general. I'm heading to Fort Mac tomorrow so lacking the creature comforts of home make it that more of a challenge.

Enough blah.

I realized I'll be at Disney World in time for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas so I got myself a ticket. I'm going all in to this trip. It won't be like Anaheim when I didn't go on any rides. This time I want to come home with Mickey ears. Plus this might be my one shot at a Christmas party.

So that's all I got. It's pajama time.

Hugs!!!!

Finally heading back in the right direction

Down 1.6 today, almost danced at the scale. Now to keep the momentum going in the right direction.

I'm glad I opted not to do the fun run as I want to focus that energy on 13 miles tomorrow.

Today as I walked home after weigh in and a quick stop at the grocery store it started snowing, it was actually snowing straight at me and I walked with big old smile on my face. One of my neighbors was driving by and she stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. I thanked her but I said I was all good.

I had the Yurbuds in and was listening to some classic Bon Jovi and just thought it looked so pretty.

It's been snowing on and off throughout the day, it's light fluffy snow so not really collecting. I left not exactly dressed appropriately so I stopped at Sport Check and got a Helly Hanson purple micro fleece, moisture wicking pullover. It will be useful.

When I got home I used my fancy new excel skills to create a weigh in chart, and it's a little all over the place so that's an anchor to keep that line heading downward.

I also looked at potential weigh in locations for Orlando and I'm starting to think it might be better to weigh in the day before I leave. In Orlando my options are after the 5K and before the Half or the day after the half. Now my plan is to rest after the morning 5K so I have good energy for the Half which is that night.

Going to my regular location would be 4 days later then my last weigh in but it just seems to work better. This would be the first time I weigh directly after getting off the plane too.

Well that's all I got for today, so I hope you are enjoying your Saturday.

Hugs

All Good

Thanks so much for the comments of concern, the ankle is fine. Whatever it was just a twinge nothing serious and I find myself really looking forward to my long run this week.

This week has been nuts, I had a pretty big to do list and it just kept growing. By the end of my week I managed to get the big stuff done now it's on to the little and new stuff.

Bit of a different week next week as I need to be in Fort McMurray for two days to go to a training. At least this time I can be prepared and pack an overnight bag with workout clothes. The only room I could get was the Super 8 but it's newly renovated and has a gym.

Today I had to head downtown to get some assistance as I have to help prepare a rather important presentation and my excel skills are good but not fantastic.

The funny part is my company just launched Microsoft 2010, before that we used Microsoft 2003 - yeah not exactly cutting edge in that area but it is quite different so they've been offering training. I signed up for everything except word as I think I got that covered.

I thought I was going to an Outlook training but it wound up being Advanced Excel - well that was serendipity or what. Now I feel a bit more equipped to create a kick ass chart.

After a consultation with some very smart co-workers I have an even better idea of what I want to do, I then had some errands to run.

I picked up my race pack at the Running Room for the Halloween Howl 5K but now I'm questioning if I'm going to do it. Due to all the running around I didn't got weigh in today so I need to go tomorrow which causes a wrinkle in my plan. I pledged to not miss weigh in unless it's absolutely unavoidable. This a fun run, no timing chip plus the weather isn't supposed to be so great with rain/snow. The route to weigh in and back is 5K so I think this is will be a donation to the Diabetes Society instead. I might keep the tutu for Wine and Dine. I now have a Halloween costume if I should ever need one.

I did pick up some stuff at the Running Room, I needed a new jacket. Now I've had a few versions of this jacket in the past but it finally comes with pockets which I always wished they had.

I got the purple one :) I also got a pair of pants that will be a bit warmer with cooler temperatures and it has a purple zipper pocket on the leg. Have I told you I have a thing for purple?

I've been on the look out for sports headphones especially after my ear stuff. I wanted something sweat proof and cleanable.

I saw these and thought I'd give them a try. I remember seeing them at the Tinkerbell Race Expo. I'll be testing them out tomorrow.

I got the details for Wine and Dine today just a few more weeks till I jet off to Orlando.

I then headed to the downtown mall as I wanted to get some "corporate" work tops as I haven't had new stuff in a very long time.

I took a side trip and walked through the renovated Devonian Gardens, I use to love this place when I worked in the mall. It's a spot of outside on the 3rd floor of a building in the downtown core. An entire hectare of plants and fish ponds, great place to eat your lunch. They also have an indoor playground so perfect for the kiddies. It's a nice revamp as it was originally built in 1977.

Funnily enough I always pictured myself getting married in this park, should that ever be in the cards.

I used to love to feed the fishies ever since I was a little kid as they would have a little thing that you could put a quarter in and get a handful of fish food. I hope they do that again.

Now I'm also a huge fan of Halloween and unfortunately I'll miss out on handing out candy as I'll be at work. However I've compensated.

I found these plastic skull goblets at Walmart so turned them into candy dishes for my coworkers.

I walked by these guys today and couldn't decide on one so they're all going to work on Monday. I think they're so adorable.

On the weigh in front, I tracked really well for the first 3 days then fell off. I lost the battle but not the war, next week I'm shooting for at least 4 days to get myself back to tracking every day. Food wise it's been a pretty good week so we shall see what the scale says tomorrow.

On the bus to downtown today I got ideas for a new run route that takes me into the neighborhood next door so perhaps I'll expand my run route this weekend. I'm also going to create a new run playlist to liven things up a little.

I so hope you all had a great week.

Hugs!!!

Not exactly as planned but it's the olympics of life

My half marathon training plan said 12.5 miles today and I headed out with good intentions. I had my hydration pack and packed a couple of GUs and had the playlist ready to go.

After a mile and half my right knee and shin started to feel off so I stopped the run intervals and just walked to see how it went and by mile 4 it didn't seem right so I decided to stop. I have one day less one month until my half marathon and I decided to listen to my body. I can still make next weekend a long run still be on track.

I came across two blog posts over the past few days that reminded me of something I wrote about a few months ago. Now at the time I was writing about how inspiring the Olympics are but I said something that does tend to pop into my head on a regular basis - Training for the Olympics of Life.

The first blog I came across came courtesy of the fabulous Mizfit, allow me to take a direct quote from her post titled Life Is My Sport - I encourage you to read the entire post if you haven't already seen it:

"This is my end goal.  Life is my competition. I get up, I do it as best I can, I go to bed and I get it and do it AGAIN the next day there seems to be a level of disinterest (brands/strangers) or disappointment (family/friends).

As if committing to daily, lifelong competition is not in and of itself a goal.

As if choosing to get on this healthy path and not git off isnt freakin hard and exhausting‘enough’ or impressive."

So this post started the wheels turning in my head. I then came across a post by SkinnyEmmie, she too  referenced the amazing post my MizFit and writes about "This is about life"

I am training for the Olympics of life, there is no finish line and no end goal. I know how dangerous I can be when I don't pay attention to eating right and being active. I never want to go back to 200lbs. I never will go back to 200lbs.

So I don't feel bad about 4 miles, I got up and moved and my day is tracked. It's the little things that add up. I didn't become overweight overnight and I'm not going to be at goal weight overnight. Once I get to goal weight it doesn't stop there either it keeps going.

So I'm going to just keep going.

Enjoy your Sunday,

Hugs!!

Le sigh

This might be a wee bit of a rambling post as I haven't blogged since Monday so I thought I'd warn you in advance.

This past week has been stressful. I thought I had an ear infection and tales from others told me they take a long time to get rid of and of course my thoughts kept going to the Disney Wine and Dine in 4 weeks so I was a little freaked out.

I'm getting my 4th boss in 4 years shortly, mind you the last one has been for almost 2 but they've now moved on to another role in the company.

This week I had my first face to face meeting with my new boss and I've quickly come to the realization she will be the complete and polar opposite to my old boss. This is isn't a bad thing just very very very different. I have a feeling a whole lot is going to change. Mind you I'll probably only be supporting the business unit I have now for one more year at most so change is inevitable.

When I'm stressed my tracking becomes non existent. I can have the habit of worrying about things that are beyond my control so I have to remember to let it go.

I flew home a little earlier on Wednesday so I could go to a walk in clinic to figure out what was going on with the ear.

I got in pretty quick so that was good. I've never had an ear infection so I have no clue what the symptoms are. The Doctor started to ask me questions - any ringing in the ear, fever, sweating? I answered no to all of them. Then she took a look and my left ear had a whole lot of wax in it.

I immediately felt like I was 104 and thought how can that be I practice good hygiene, like you should see my skin care steps, so I asked her what does one do to avoid it. She said she's seen 5 year old kids with the same thing. It doesn't matter how old you are, what sex, what height or what weight it's completely random and every body is different.

So she recommended I use something to soften the wax for 4 days and can go back and get it cleared by them.

I knew I had some stuff at home that actually removes the wax that my Dad recommended I haven't used it. I've diligently used it twice a day and I'm on day 3. Today I can hear normally so I don't think I'll go back to the walk in. I have my regular physical with my normal Doctor on Nov. 2 and we'll see what he says.

That has me a wee stressed to as my last visit we talked about weight and today I find myself with more of it then 1.5 years ago when I last had a physical.

Yesterday I went to the noon WW meeting as I was heading to the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Fest last night. The whole point of going to something like this is try new things and I wasn't sure how late I'd be. I was up .6

I'm now torn. I really like the leader at the Friday noon meetings, Barb is hysterical and knows her members by name and the meeting had a good vibe with lots of interaction.

I like the Saturday meetings because it's first thing in the morning and while I like the leader a bit more I still don't really relate to her and find her style more like school teacher but noon is kind of an awkward time. I'll figure it out week by week. This Friday I did sleep in so noon wasn't so bad. What I really need to decide is who do I think will best help my journey.

The Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Fest was a lot of fun. The 3 friends I went with had never been before so I'm really glad they had a good time. It was busy.

It's like a convention of loads of local restaurants sampling their dishes not to mention a load of wine sellers, beer sellers and spirit sellers. My advice was to go early as later on it would be a zoo, at this point it was starting to be zoo-ish.

The highlight for me were the home made perogies from a store not so far from my house and a chocolate cake flavored vodka that smelled and tasted like chocolate cake. Not sure what you would use it for other then drinking it straight up or in some sort of dessert.

Today I got most of what I need for my Halloween Howl 5K costume. I'll post more about that later.

So this week the goals are simple back to basics.

Completely random, I decided to rent Rock of Ages tonight and I'm thinking I need this a run playlist. I'm surprised how many lyrics I know. It's a fun movie.

Hope all of you are doing well.

Hugs!!

Food Coma

Best laid plans my friends.

Woke up at 1am and actually thought way to go that's 4hrs of sleep on fly out day. I always have horrible sleep on Sunday nights when I'm flying out to work. It's a combination of having to be up at 3:30am and a deep rooted fear of missing the plane.

Last Tuesday when I was in a meeting I rubbed my left ear and felt something. I then found myself with muffled hearing in that ear. When I got to Canmore I found a pharmacy and got drops. Felt fine by Friday so I stopped the drops. Then on the weekend it felt muffled again so I went back to drops. This morning still a little muffled but survived the flight without drops. Right now I feel back to normal. I vowed to go to a walk in clinic when I get home if it persists.

More people came came up today then I expected so my day flew by and I did not get as much done as I thought. Tomorrow is meeting after meeting - good times.

I did wind up getting a Thanksgiving dinner at camp. I thought I had missed my chance this year. There was turkey, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, green beans almandine, a strange brussel sprout / carrot thing tonight. There was also dessert and up for grabs was pecan pie, apple cobbler and pumpkin pie.

I had a little turkey, potatoes, stuffing and green beans and 1/4 of a piece of pecan pie. I now find myself in a food coma.

Fitbloggin 13 tickets went on sale today so I registered for that and booked my flight.

Now it's pajamas, finish off Hawaii 5-O and to bed for me.

Tomorrow I must run.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends and Happy Columbus Day to my neighbors to the south. Hope you all had fun.

Hugs

Rest Day

In my infinite wisdom I set my alarm for 7pm today as opposed to 7am. I did get up around 7:30am, I felt off. I felt like I was coming down with something so after much deliberation I decided to make it a rest day. I was sneezing and felt a little stuffed up.

I am going back to work tomorrow and want to avoid being sick in camp at all costs. I don't like not feeling well away from home and while I do have a fair amount of creature comforts in my camp room I don't have everything.

The other reason not to be sick at camp is it can then spread like wildfire to other people. I do feel better now so I think I'm good.

My half marathon training plan this time around has been a mismatch of a few plans. I am following Jeff Galloway's plan and he has 3 designed for the Disney Wine and Dine. At first was going to follow the one to beat a time goal. I then realized that it was more like I was starting over so I looked at that just want to finish upright and smiling, then I looked at if you haven't run in 6 months. After Tinkerbell I didn't keep the training up and my 3rd attempt at doing C25K stopped. I really should have been focusing on like I'm training for the first one again.

What I've been doing up till now is adding 1 mile each LSD run day. I re-consulted the beginner training plan and it was supposed to be 4 miles today, I can do that tomorrow on the treadmill and still retain the week. Now next Sunday will be my longest distance to date followed by 4 miles and so on.

I think I have my costume for the Halloween Howl somewhat sorted. I ordered a Batman t-shirt and black tulle yesterday. I'm thinking a sort of Batgirl. I'll do something with the t-shirt over a black tech shirt and have a black tutu on top of black bottoms. It's a 5K and the costume parts will be easy to take off if I want to run any errands afterwards.

That's all I got today, I do hope all my fellow Canadians are enjoying their Thanksgiving.

Hugs!!

Dusting off cobwebs

Well not actual cobwebs.

It was a drive by weigh in today as I opted for a bit more sleep I weighed in at the later meeting, saw that it was a sub-leader so just weighed in and left. I had a serious to do list to get done to today.

The weigh in was no change I stayed exactly the same which I'm not surprised about as I wasn't tracking while I was in Canmore. That started again today as I made the commitment to get right back on track.

I desperately needed to vacuum and dust today hence my cobweb title but that had more to it then just housecleaning. I needed to get organized and it is also a representation of where my head is at.

I still find myself thinking back to 9  FitBloggin over and over again. I know I can be at goal by FitBloggin 2013. I'm not setting that date as a goal I just know that in that time frame it's very do-able.

What I have weighing on my mind is my yearly physical on Nov 3rd. I didn't want to be at this weight and I recently discovered a bump under my the left side of rib cage which I want to discuss. I'm leaving it for the appointment as scheduling an additional appointment is an exercise in extreme patience. I found it after a nap on the coach. I'm not freaking out as I find as I get older my body is changing. Nothing hurts and nothing out of the usual is happening. I did learn the lesson from my skin cancer scare years ago that it's best to ask if your unsure about anything. I was incredibly lucky to have found that an early stage.

I also signed up for two more races. I signed up for the The Brita Resolution 5k on December 31st a few weeks ago as I've spent the last few years spending New Years Eve on my own (by choice) so why not do something other then watch movies on the tv and still be home before all the drunk crazy people.

I'm still committed to signing up for regular races as I find my focus is better if I'm training for something. Today I signed up for the Hypothermic Half on Feb 9. Really hoping we have a chinook that Saturday as temperatures in February can be chilly.

On the race side I'm now sorted until May.

This week I'll be weighing in at noon on Friday as Friday night I'm heading to the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival with some friends. I'm looking forward to that as you find new restaurants and get introduced to new things around the city. I'm going to take pictures and share it with you.

Tomorrow is LSD day and I have 9 miles to do. My clothes are organized and the Garmin is charged. I'm going to try something different. So far for the long days I've carried my hydration pack with Nuun tablets in the water. Last Sunday I hit a wall at 6 miles. Tomorrow I'll just carry water in the hydration pack and take Cliff Shot Blocks with me. I'm wondering if it was a fuel issue. I'll be back tomorrow and let you know how that worked.

Hope you had a great Saturday,

Hugs!!

Girls Mid-week Weekend

Well Hello,

Came back from the beautiful Canmore, Alberta today and finally have a chance to blog. My friend and I found we had the same days off as we both work a Mon - Thurs schedule and had to take Tuesday off to go to the concert we opted to take an extra two and head out of town before all the Thanksgiving travelers started out of the city. Canadian Thanksgiving is this Monday Oct 8 so it's not uncommon for people to head out on Friday.

We started with the Carrie Underwood concert on Tuesday.

I didn't realize I had club seats

My friends L and K bought tickets for themselves and P and T by joining the fan club, but I think I wound up with better seats.

Those are my two friends, two more friends were coming but there flight got seriously delayed due to fog leaving site and they got there just in time for Carrie. Due to all the lights during the show all my IPhone pictures turned out horrible.

It was a really good concerts, she sang all the songs I knew plus a few I didn't. I bailed right before the encore as I knew it'd be a zoo and I wanted to find a cab.

Then on Wednesday my friend P and I headed one hour outside of Calgary to the gorgeous town of Canmore. We stayed at the Silver Creek Lodge. It's a nice place, not super new and a wee worn but it had everything we needed. We had a two bedroom suite complete with full kitchen.

 The kitchen came with everything we could possible need, we were only staying two nights but good to know if we ever track out there for longer.

This was my room.

The above was the view from our balcony, pretty nice huh?

 On Thursday we had booked spa packages which had a 60min massage, mani and pedi. Major bonus the spa was in the hotel. I have come to the conclusion I should go for a massage more often. I carry all of my tension in my upper back and wowsers I almost jumped off the table when the massage therapist worked on that part. I was sore in areas I didn't expect like my right forearm but I guess it makes sense. I'm right handed and spend a lot of time on a computer. My calves were tight too but my right calf more so then the left. They told us we should go again in a few weeks so the benefits can continue and be maintained. I rarely go so the muscles never have an opportunity to truly benefit.

I wound up buying the the nail color they put on my toes, it was this cool purple. Not like any other purple I've seen.

Now I was surprised to find the hotel fitness center had no treadmill. I have never seen that before. So we pretty much just relaxed for two days but I think we both needed that.

On the drive home we say a grizzly bear making his way down the side of a hill.

But mini vacation is over and I'm heading to weigh in tomorrow. I'm thinking about coming straight home afterwards as I have a whack of housework to do as it's been sorely neglected lately. Sunday is run day. I think I'm going to hire someone to clean out my eaves troughs and rake my leaves as I seem to not have the time to do it.

Any ways I do hope you all have had a great few days.

Hugs!!!

Here a plane, there a plane

I was out the door by 4am this morning, my first stop was Tim Horton's for a large double double with milk and a breakfast sandwich. Today I tried the English muffin, egg white, cheese and ham version which is 6pts. It was really good and far more WW friendly then the 11pt biscuit version. Though the biscuits are dangerous and very good.

I saw this gorgeous sunrise just before we landed at work which is roughly 900km from Calgary.

I don't normally fly up and back on the same day but there were things I had to get done today as it was my only day in the office.

I got the must do of my to do list done, so I'm happy with that.

The flight home was incredibly bumpy thanks to wind but thanks to a few years of two flights per week I'm a pro at turbulence.  I watched Downton Abbey on my Ipad, I heard so much about this show I downloaded the first season.

I landed as the sun set and snapped the below just as we were approaching the runway.

I think my city is so pretty, I travel a lot but I really think Calgary has a nice looking downtown and being only an hour away from the Rockies situated nicely.

When I got home I checked in with Dad who informed me grizzly bears have been seen around Canmore.

Yeah, I guess my runs that are scheduled for when I'm in Canmore will be on a treadmill as I don't want to run into one of these guys on my own. They also happen to be one of the more aggressive species of bear.

Tomorrow it's an all day meeting then off to see Carrie Underwood.

I need to break up with Reese's peanut butter cups, in a moment of weakness I bought a bag of the Halloween candy version and put it in the fridge. I only like them when they're cold well I also can't stop at one so bye bye Reese's.

I also don't feel as sore as I thought I would today, could it be progress?

Hope you had an awesome Monday.

Hugs!!!

Operation Enough resurrected and more FitBloggin

Well hello my friends,

I returned to my WW meeting yesterday, my last weigh in was Sept.8th, whoa time goes fast. I do have a very bad habit of avoiding weigh in if things aren't going my way and there was one week I failed to set the alarm. I do realize hiding from the scale doesn't help me. So right here and right now I vow to not miss a weigh in unless absolutely necessary and never because I just want to avoid the number.

Avoiding the number never ever works and I pulled up my big girl pants and went. I was up 5lbs, it's a product of my actions. I will not look back only forward. I know what I need to do.

Right now the only weigh in that I might not make is when I go to Orlando for the half marathon, I will  hunt down a WW center in Orlando but I'm hoping it's not a mega huge cab fare from Disney World. Don't suppose anyone knows of a WW location close to Disney World?

A while back I created Operation Enough, it was around going to Vegas, my birthday and a numerous other events. Today I resurrected two things Operation Enough 2 and my half marathon training.

Operation Enough is a spreadsheet essentially, I love data and way back when I first started WW I tracked everything not just points. I tracked activity, percentages lost, daily weigh in (which work for me not for everybody). I cleaned up the spreadsheet making sure it went to Dec 31. It helped me track trends and look back at what works. I did buy a new 3 month tracker yesterday and Day 1 is tracked.

On the half marathon training front my last tracked run was Sept. 2 that was my last LSD (long slow) run. Yeah, I fell off the wagon on that one. Not sure what happened but I know I failed at scheduling my life. A combination of long days and a wee bit of a stress didn't help. I now have 6 weeks till the race and focus must be amplified.

Today was 8 miles on the training plan, last long day was 6 miles. I felt strong through the first 6 miles and thought I was doing really well but then I hit a monster hill and had no energy left in the engine. My neighbourhood is full of inclines and I had conquered a few already. I did commit to 8 miles and I did 8 miles. The weird part I was faster then Sept. 2.

Sept. 2 was 6 miles at a pace of 14:26/mi, today I did 8 miles at a pace of 14:21/mi. Yeah me!

I found this in the hotel gift shop in Baltimore. I have a thing for keys and that word believe is so important. The mini cards I took to FitBloggin have a key design, my goal is the key they give you at WW for goal and I fully intend to buy myself a Tiffany key when I hit goal as a constant reminder and prize. The key above is now on my key chain. Keys open doors and open hearts.

That leads me to the last of my FitBloggin pictures, I can't write a final FitBloggin recap as that experience is so much more and it lives with me every day. I just want to introduce you to some folks  you may already know but if you don't you should.

This is the amazing Kenlie of All The Weigh, when she spoke during the discussion Lots To Lose, she had me in tears. She has such a beautiful soul. She also posts a Friend Making Monday questionnaire that I admit I've never taken part in but I always read everyone else's. Perhaps tomorrow will be my first attempt.

This is Krystle of Skinny Jean Dreams, I was hugely inspired by her WW journey. What surprised me even more was she was surprised I read her blog as I guess she doesn't post there as often as before. At any rate she will remain in my RSS reader as she continues to be an inspiration.

This is Sue of Mrs Fatass, and she celebrated her birthday at FitBloggin. Last year she attended the Zumba class and it inspired her to be become a Zumba instructor - like how cool is that? She taught the class we did. OMG she's amazing so much fun and had over a 100 of us shaking hips and doing our thing. When I started to freak out about going to FitBloggin she was one of the first to reach out on twitter to tell me it would be amazing. She was right.

This is Samantha of Simplifying Sam, she co-taught the Zumba class and this girl has moves. I always think I look like a drunk interpretive dancer while doing Zumba. I want to learn to move like her. She is also a complete sweet heart. Wish I had more opportunity to get to know her so I do hope she goes to FitBloggin 13 in Portland.

This is Emilie of Skinnyemmie, she taught a session on "Using social media to drive blog traffic".  My blog has always been for me and if you enjoy it bonus. I've never wanted to use it to make money as I don't want to write to please people just write about my perception of my universe and hopefully find friends along the way. She's a genius. I do love data and the stuff she told us about had me intrigued. Check out the live blog recap.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor is beautiful, it was an amazing location, I took this from the window next to the elevator.

I have a thing for submarines, starting from book and movie The Hunt for Red October so I was thrilled to see one docked.

These are paddle boats you can rent, they just made me smile as I immediately thought of Ogopogo, the mystical creature in Kelown, it's like North America's Loch Ness Monster.

I just loved the whole area being from land locked province the harbor was beautiful.

So my schedule this week is a little whacked. I fly to work and back on Monday. Tuesday is an all day meeting in Calgary and then the Carrie Underwood concert. Wednesday to Friday I'm heading to Canmore for a girls weekend. The plan is to relax, look at mountains and a spa day.

This is where we're staying, how gorgeous is that?

Now the friend I'm going with isn't so focused on a fitness lifestyle. I completely respect that as it's to each our own. We've already determined there will be snacks. That might be a bit of a challenge for me as I can be lead astray. The room we have has a kitchenette so I will focus on healthy snacks and keep looking at my believe key. I will pack gym clothes as the resort has a gym. I can do this.

Alright I leave you with this as my alarm is going off at 3:30am.

Hugs!!!!

More FitBloggin, New Hair & Day 1

Well Hello,

Can I say how it good it is to be home? I've been all over the place lately. I worked right up to FitBloggin, went to FitBloggin then back to work the next day. I pretty much dumped my suitcase and packed my backpack for site, turned around and left.

I got to work on Monday not realizing my Thursday meeting was in Fort McMurray not Calgary so I had nothing with me. Good thing I keep duplicates of everything in my camp room so I had a toothbrush and clean underwear.

Wednesday night took the bus from site to Fort McMurray (2hr ride), checked into the hotel, grabbed dinner at The Keg and then to sleep. Next day was full meetings and super bad food like The Keg for supper, waffles for breakfast, chicken fingers and fries for lunch; and pizza for supper. Yeah I know not the behaviour of someone who wants to lose weight. I felt like was I on a run away train so happy to home to reset and start over.

It started today with new hair

A few inches shorter and freshly trimmed fringe, I love the blunt hair cut perhaps it comes from being a science fiction fan and always liking the Vulcans and Romulans on Star Trek.

At any rate I wanted to share a few more pictures from FitBloggin with you all.

I had to fly from Calgary to Toronto in order to catch a plane for Baltimore, so a view of the Toronto skyline as we were starting to land. The pointy thing in the middle is the CN Tower.

I passed this mural on the way to the luggage once I landed in Baltimore. The airport was crawling with US soldiers dressed in dessert fatigues. Then I remembered there's a huge military base in these parts. When I actually got off the plane and into the terminal there was a big line of their packs it almost looked like a snake. I was tempted to take a photo but didn't know if that was appropriate.

On the first night of FitBloggin there was a little social get together that also involved making you name tag. Next year I'll make sure to bring some Canadian Flag and Cowboy related stickers.

This is the amazing Susan or you may know her as Foodie McBody, she gave a one woman performance about finding out she was facing diabetes. It was incredibly moving and touching. I think she gave me my very first hug at FitBloggin. She is also a Weight Watcher so I feel kinship with her.

I then went for dinner with two brand new FitBloggin friends the wonderful Amy from Mostly Forward and Cali from Broccoli Cupcakes, as we were eating at J.Paul's a pirate ship drifted by with a whole lot people yelling "Argh".

The next day there was a Crossfit Class with Reebok and I got paired off with the amazing Dani (who I did not get a pic with :(. She's a WW leader, and a super fun person.

I'm actually reading a book right now about the history of Crossfit, it's a good read.

I also like how it explains some of the exercises at the back. As long as I'm on a fly in fly out schedule I won't be joining a Crossfit gym, way too expensive for something I can only use for 3 days anything in writing is super helpful.

I almost forgot the amazing sway they gave us, I was warned but I never expected such generosity. Those fabulous Reebok Flex are super comfortable and actually designed for crossfit or any cross training. I had to leave the yoga mat and cereal you can barely see behind.

I'll post more FitBloggin pictures tomorrow and introduce to more people I met plus some shots from my short exploration of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Tomorrow I go back to weigh in and I'm declaring a restart - Day 1. I saw a very scary number on the scale last night but I need to face up to facts and go back to basics. I'm going to buy a new tracker tomorrow and get this show on the road. I have a 5K on Oct 20 and the Disney Wine and Dine Half on November 10th both dates are looming very close.

Whatever number comes up tomorrow it's data and data I need to make the right changes.

Hope you had a great Friday.

Hugs!!!

FitBloggin Aha moments

I've found a bunch of new blogs to follow thanks to FitBloggin, so I'm reading a lot of recaps of the event.

I'm also realizing there's a whack of interesting people I didn't get a chance to meet & cool stuff I didn't do. Now I feel regret.

The fact that I went to FitBloggin at all is a miracle. I'm super shy in unfamiliar situations and not in the habit of putting myself out there. Yet from the moment I heard about it I had to go. A place where people on a journey to better themselves can meet & connect is simply amazing.

I definitely put myself out there more then normal but perhaps not enough. I'm not going to dwell.

Instead I will focus on learning more about these amazing people I spent 3 days with and foster friendships online. Then next year in Portland I'll make sure to go all in.

The experiences I did have will be with me always.

Hugs