A Deal...update

Phew!

No more elevators equals sad face.

Monday I did 18 flights of stairs, and Tuesday I did 40 (half up & half down).  Not all at once of course, but throughout the day.  The most I ever do at a time is 6 (as I'm on the six floor).

I find that the first floor is pretty easy, the second one is doable, but by the third I'm winded.

I've started doing slow breathing, in and out, as a I walk up the stairs.  I try to coach myself through the breathing rather then focusing on how many more steps I have to walk.

I think it's helping.

A Deal

On my last post, I mentioned some learning from a recent Health & Safety meeting we had at work. In one of the comments, my mom issued a challenge.

Does this mean that the diet coke and chocolate bar theory is busted? Oh no! And I shouldn't buy diet coke any more? I do know that it hasn't helped me lose weight. If you do the stairs I will stop buying diet coke. ( but I can't waste or waist what I have)

Mom, I accept your challenge. I will stop taking elevators if you stop drinking diet coke.

I work on the sixth floor, and this morning - walking hurt. I hope that in a few months, it doesn't hurt so much and I get to the feeling good part.

Health & Saftey Meeting

Yesterday we had a health and safety meeting that lasted 4 hours!  In it we had some group exercises, a guest speaker, and some interactive conversation.  The key things I learned were:

• You should drink a liter of water for every 100lbs of body weight 
• 2 liters of water for me = 8 cups of water
• When reading nutrition labels, take care to read the serving size - it can be very misleading
• Meal planning can go a long way to save you money, time, energy, & stress
• Simply by increasing the amount of Omega 3 in your diet (via supplement) you can decrease your chance of heart attack and decrease joint swelling, and help your body manage it's insulin levels
• People, on average, eat their body weight in sugar every year
• Our ancestors ate less sugar in a year, then we do in a day
• Aspartame, commonly found in diet products, was originally created as a chemical weapon
• It also makes our body thing there is sugar when there isn't which can numb our bodies ability to tell when their is real sugar to process.  This messes with incline levels and often results in a weight increase not decrease
• The number one symptom of heart attack, is death
• most people don't survive their first (and therfore their only) heart attack to tell about it's symtoms - they just die

I think I might start walking up the stairs in the morning and drinking some water...also going to pick up some Omega 3 pills at Costco next time I'm there.

fat days - do you have them?

I'm having a bit of a fat day...

As i was walking to the cafeteria to heat up my lunch, I wondered if this bowl of soup would be the one to give me a double chin.

*sighs

Top 10 things I love about Christmas...

In no particular order...

1. Most everyone is in a good mood
2. I get to spend lots of extra time with family
3. I get to see friends more then I would otherwise
4. All the good Christmas smells
5. Baking, Baking, Baking (mine, my mothers, and my grandmothers - and everyone in between)
6. Time off from work
7. Decorations are so pretty
8. Christmas bonus'
9. Giving of gifts
10. Spreading Joy

I made a deal...

with my mom.

If she wouldn't buy crap at the grocery store, neither would I.

Good deal!

I did make a raspberry pie though - does that count b/c I didn't buy it?

What is your ideal weight?

As I start to think about this post, I’m not sure what mine is – I just know that it’s not 210lbs. 

During my annual family Christmas shopping trip, the subject of weight and body types had come up. I believe that my number one problem is portion control. I eat too much. I also probably don’t exersize enough as well.

To figure out my ideal weight, I’m first going to look at my stats and then go to a few online calculators.

Please know that I do understand that muscle weighs more then fat, and you can be fit, in shape, and strong – and weigh more because of muscle – this is not my problem. I have some muscle, but that isn’t where the majority of my weight comes from.

I am 5 foot, 10 inches tall, I am a 25 year old female and I have a medium frame. 

• According to devine.ca, my ideal weight is between 150-165 lbs. 
• According to bodyandhealth.canada.com, my ideal weight is between 120 and 174 lbs. 
• According to shape.com, my ideal weight is between 142 and 156 lbs. 
• According to halls.md, my ideal weigth should be between 132 to 174 lbs. 

Based on the websites I mentioned above, I think I will set my ideal weight goal at 165 lbs. To achieve that, I will need to lose 45 lbs.

I know that part of my plan will be to watch my portion control, and to start moving my body more. I haven’t figured out my exact plan yet – I think the first step is to identify the problem.

Are you who you want to be.. or even who you think you are?

A few months ago I moved my horse to the city.  Up until that point, it’s been several years since I have been directly responsible for her care.

I have to question if I have ever been directly responsible for her care.

She was given to me when I was 12 years old – I had asked my dad if I could have a horse for a full year up to the day when he said I could.  I won’t get into the whole story, but after a few weeks (a month?) of looking, my grandmother found a horse for me.

Starlight was only two at the time, and could not be ridden until she was three – so for that first year we spent a lot of time walking, talking, and grooming.  I worked with a trainer the next year who taught me how to be a better rider and my horse how to listen/interpret my queues.

I really enjoyed being a western horse back rider.  I liked telling people about my horse, my riding – my travels.  I loved spending time with my horse.

During that time, my parents bought a few more horses, horse trailers, and all the horsey-stuff you can imagine (saddles ect).

Then I went away to college.  I came back home every summer for the first five years of school and always rode – probably not as much as I should have, but I rode.  The following year a cousin was looking for a few horses for a horse-back riding adventure tourism thing he was working on and I said he could use starlight as a tour horse in exchange for board/feed – the deal was done.

Then, two years ago my mom and dad sold their horses, trailers, bridles and bits (everything except dad’s saddle).   They actually sold just about everything to an aunt/uncle of mine – the uncles kid, was my cousin who had starlight.

Well – last year cousin could no longer care of starlight, and his plans had all landed on his lap.  That brings us to present day, where a few months ago (August) I brought starlight to my city.

I promised myself that I would give myself a year to figure out if I really was the horse-back riding person that I wanted to me, and that I thought I was.

The first month was great, I went out just about every other day, I got all of her vaccinations up to date – and was off to a great start.  The second month I got my saddle organized, and went out to ride – that was a big fail because I actually forgot how to do up my saddle.

I forgot – I couldn’t do it right – I felt stupid.

After three hours, I went home.

I’ve been back a few times to drop of cheques for her board, and to make sure she’s doing well – but I haven’t tried riding again.

Now it’s cold and dark when I get home – and I haven’t found the time to make it work.

Am I really a horse-back rider?  Am I?

I want to be, I thought I wanted to be, I thought I could be.

I feel like I’m doing her a disservice by not riding and visiting more often – I know she’s not getting the exercise she should be.  I know I need to get her feet shod.  I feel like I have no resources here when it comes to my horse – I don’t know who to go to.

I don’t know if I’m this person anymore and it scares me.  

Annual Christmas Shopping Trip

I had an amazing weekend!  Except for being sick with a cold, but that was a small problem in comparison to the great time I had with my family.

My mom, her two sisters, and my grandmother came to my city to go Christmas shopping.  It's an annual event for the last five or six years (I think), and it always happens around Remembrance Day.

I got tonnes of shopping done for both Christmas, myself, and a couple of birthday's too!

On Saturday night we went for a big supper and we invited Jordan's parents and his little brother along - it was neat to have them meet a chunk of my family!  I think it went well on both sides too!  I was super nervous, but it wound up being for nothing :D

I'm Having Deja-Vu

or some such thing.

Jordan just called.  The Edmonton part's shop wants to borrow Jordan for a couple of days in December so they he can help them organize their shop.  They recently let go of their parts person, so want to make sure things are a-okay.  They're going to pay for his travel, and food and board while he's up there which will be nice.

At first my breath hitched because when we dated a few years back, he was needed on Ontario for a couple of weeks and it turned into 6 months (we broke up while he was away).

This time it's different.  Jordan called me straight off and said he'll try to organize it so its a wed-Friday and then I can drive up after work on the Friday and we could spend the weekend in Edmonton together and then drive home together.  It'll be a nice weekend away.

This whole common-law thing is pretty cool.

Christmas and other ramblings

Is-a-coming!

How do I know this, well aside from the obvious and just looking at the Calendar - my mom, her two sisters, and my grandmother are all coming to town for their annual Christmas shop!  I'm really looking forward to it this year - though, I look forward to it every year.

The actually shopping is just for us women (see I resisted the urge to type girls) - Saturday night, we all go out for supper and usually boyfriends/friends/brother is invited for this.  This year, I've also invited Jordan's parents for supper.

It makes me a little nervous.

Jordan and I have been together for nearly two years, we've known each other for a great many more - it's strange that our family's have never met - nor shown an inclination to want to meet before.

On the good side - at least with Jordan's family there - it will be less awkward (if it would have been at all) with Lindsay.