Humbled

I bared my soul yesterday.  It was a hard post to write, but I did it and I was very unsure of myself.  Very unsure after I hit that publish button on the top of the page.  Very unsure a half hour later when my phone started buzzing with emails.

I am truly humbled by the amount of support and the kindness of people.  The number of kind comments I received, the number of emails of support.  It means a lot to me.

I write this blog to keep myself accountable.  I didn't really think or realize how touched I would be by the people who read it.

Thank you.  Your kindness while I was baring my soul, is truly, greatly appreciated.

Although I stated in my blog yesterday that I would run sun, rain, snow,  or sleet.  I didn't actually count on it happening right away.  We woke up this morning to snow, it was snowing quite hard and I don't have winter gear for running outside.  It was also slippery, by 9am we had heard multiple police, fire and ambulance sirens and elected not to go out in it.  Not to drive to the gym and just stay home.

Snow at 9am this morning.

I kept my self busy by prepping meals for the week.  I made a huge pot of marinara sauce, for tonight's dinner with two more dinner portions in the freezer.  I mixed together a meatloaf, put it in the pan, wrapped it and put it in the freezer for later this week.  Measured out my hummus by weight and points for my lunch.  Made a salad for lunches, made my own home made Baby Gonach veggie dip, tidied the house and did some knitting.

Nothing smells better than a marinara sauce simmering on the stove top all day. 

Around 130 I was getting a little antsy and feeling bad that although I was being productive I wasn't earning any activity points.  I decided to bundle up and shovel the driveway instead of sitting on my butt for a while.  I headed outside and found that the snow had tapered to ice rain, it made shoveling the white stuff a little more challenging and it took me twenty minutes to clear off our driveway and apron.  I was absolutely freezing by the time I came in.  I'm going to have to break down and get myself some cold weather clothes.  A little while later I looked out the kitchen door as I was tiding it up and couldn't see anything for the layer of ice over the outer windows due to the ice rain.

A layer of ice over the windows on our enclosed front porch.

I'm back to work tomorrow after a two week break over Christmas and New Years.  I've packed my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, planned our dinner and will be taking my running shoes with me to get a good walk in at some point in the day.  No excuses!

Double Milestone

It's been a great week! 
I've gotten in a lot of activity every day, including a few hundred squats!  I'm loving the new workout DVD I bought last week, and kicked it up from the beginner workout to the intermediate work out.  I'm loving that workout!  I wore my Garmin while I was doing it the other day just to see what my heart rate was like and it was perfect, in zone 4 for the whole workout after the warm up.  I'm also proud of the major milestone I was able to hit this week despite it being an emotional week.    

It has also been a week of Milestones.
Milestone 1.
After almost six weeks of playing with 6 ounces and landing just below that milestone of 65 pounds lost, this week I nailed it! I passed it by two pounds.  I'm now down a total of 67.4 pounds!!!  I am so excited to have finally made it over that milestone of 65 pounds!  Every week my husband does a comparison photo for me so that we can see the process and I try to wear the same clothes every week but the shirt I used to wear has gotten so big that I can't wear it.  It just hangs on me.

This is today's photo, down 67 pounds, taken just after I returned home from my solo 6km walk/run.

Down 67 Pounds and finished a 6km walk/run

Milestone 2
I went for a solo walk/run today.  I wanted to do intervals and I knew that it wouldn't work with the dog, so I left him behind and hit the road.  I walked quickly for the first 7 minutes or so and when I turned the corner onto Whatcom road, I started running.  I haven't been doing well with timing my intervals as I find I focus too much on my watch so today I decided to use landmarks.  The first one was the 2nd lamp post on the street, walked to the next one and then ran to the gas station, then I walked over the freeway overpass to the other side where I got serious.  I ran for 2 power poles, walked for one, and I did that consistently until I hit my turn around point, and then did the same thing on the way back.  I struggled a little bit and I had to keep telling myself I could do this but I did it!  In total I ran for about 17 minutes.  That may not seem that big to some people, but trust me, for me that was HUGE!  It felt so good.  I felt so good that when I turned back onto our street at the end of my walk/run I sent a text to my husband and asked him to meet me at the gate with Angus so I could take Angus around the block for a walk.  Angus was a happy puppy to be able to go for a walk without my trying to make him run with me :)

I also had some really good times in my intervals.  I forgot to hit my lap button when I started running so I will try to remember that in the future so that I can actually see my running split times with my walking times, but when I look at the player on garmin connect it shows me the pace that I was going and I'm pretty happy with that! http://connect.garmin.com/activity/368987045

Walking/Running along the Corn fields

The power poles are a fair distance apart

On my return going over the freeway overpass

I've done two 5km races this summer and I'm signed up for another two in the fall.  The Rubber Duck 5k in October and the Boundary Bay 5k in November.  I'm also going to sign up for the Santa Shuffle in December when it opens for registration.    I'm hoping that I'll be ready to run the full 5km on October 20th for the Rubber Duck 5k.   I have a friend who has signed up to do it with me.  I know that she loves running and she's good at it, so I really want to be able to actually run with her.

Step totals this week:
Sunday       13,553
Monday      15,223
Tuesday      17,829
Wednesday 13,618
Thursday    13,671
Friday         14,437
Saturday     21,066
Sunday       15,880

Fabulous Weekend

Happy Victoria Day!  It as been a fabulous extended weekend which is closing out all to fast, but I managed to jam it packed full of activity!

On Saturday my husband had a White Caps game to go to and I decided that I would go into town with him and while he was at the game, I would walk around.  I often walk the same loop during my mid day walk from the office so I was excited to get out and explore a little bit.  It was a great walk!  I had a great time and I managed to get 8.37k's in.   I had to add a couple of loops in as I was walking because it didn't take me as long to walk from the waterfront to the Stadium as I anticipated.   Along the way, I took in the sights and sounds of the city

The tourists watching the sea planes leaving from the Convention Centre

The lovely fluffy clouds above the buildings.

 A Church Steeple high above the street

Terry Fox Plaza outside the stadium where I waited for my husband

The game is over as the crowd starts to fill the plaza.

Once my husband found me we decided to walk down to Gastown and go to a restaurant that I had gone to with my co-workers.  We enjoyed the Chef Selection tapas menu and then headed home from a long day of activity.

On Sunday morning, I wanted to get out and get another long walk in, the 8k's from Saturday wasn't enough so I got ready and headed out with the dog.  About 20 minutes later my husband came along and picked us up.  I guess I didn't tell him I was doing a long walk...oops.  We went for our Sunday morning ritual to Tim Horton's for his treat and headed back home.  As we were driving along, I asked my awesome husband to let me out so that I could finish my 5km walk.  I watched as he and Angus drove away with Angus barking out the back window at me.

I started out at a pretty good pace and was moving quickly along when I noticed the sky got a little darker than it had been.  I glanced up skywards to see the rain coming, and here I was without a jacket.

The rain cloud was hovering over where I was heading to, so I quickened my pace and set out to see how quickly I could get home.   I lucked out.  I made it onto my street just as the rain started to fall.    The rain didn't stick around long and after dinner we headed out for what has become our after dinner ritual.  A walk around the block.

Today I was heading over to my parent's house to plant some stuff that my mom had gotten for mother's day.  They live about 7.5km's from our house, my husband that may be a little too far for the dog to walk so he dropped us off at the half way point.  We made it to mom and dad's almost 4 km's away in 41minutes!  I was happy with that considering we had a monster hill to walk up!

All in all, it was a great weekend with almost 15km's walked.  I'll take that!

Productive Saturday.

I had a very productive Saturday today.  I started out early this morning.  When I got up around 7am , it was still dry out.  The weather forecast was 100% chance of rain today.  YEAH!  NOT!   When I got up and saw that it wasn't raining I knew this would be my opportunity to get a true long walk in.   

My primary goal today was to walk to the Starbucks a little over 5km's from our house.  My secondary goal was to do it as quickly as I could.  Considering I've not gotten that far, I didn't know how long it was going to take.  My only point of reference was from several weeks ago when I thought it would take an hour to get to Angus Campell road and we made it there in 40 minutes.

With my ipod playing, Angus and I headed out.  We were almost thwarted right away as it was doggy central at the gate to our complex with a brouhaha going on between a Westie, a Lab, a Pug and a Chihuahua.  Of course my dog being the dog he is wanted in on the action and started barking from our side of the gate.  That of course changed focus of the other dogs and the owners managed to get their dogs untangled and maneuvered towards their respective complexes.  I waited another minute or two and then headed out the gate when the coast was clear.  Angus was still a little excited but off we went.  Of course a few minutes later who do we come across but his arch enemies from our complex the two Jack Russel's.  These two dogs bark whether there's anything to bark at or not.  Fortunately when we reached the main road, they went to the left and Angus and I headed to the right.

We had a pretty good pace going, but with the starting and stopping and probably a good 5 minutes of dog excitement by the time we got to Angus Campbell Road we were 4 minutes behind from our last time doing this route.  I picked up my pace with Angus trotting along beside and little behind me and kept plugging along.  I looked at my phone and we were nearing the 1 hour mark.  I knew that my wonderful husband would be on his way to meet us and may very well pass us at any time.  Sure enough, not even two minutes later Angus plopped his behind down and dug his paws in as he looked over his shoulder.  I swear he has the best hearing ever.

My husband stopped and I put the dog in the back seat and looked down at my mapmywalk app that I was using to track our distance.  I was a little disappointed as we were only at 4.45 km's and I really wanted to hit the 5km mark.  I decided on the spot to keep walking.  I told my husband to go on and I'd meet him at the Starbucks.  Less than 10 minutes later I met him in the parking lot.  I was thrilled with my time and my distance!

This link should take you to my walk today.
http://www.mapmywalk.com/routes/view/199064468

Now seeing as how I'd just walked for a little over an hour and we were after all at Starbucks, I decided to give myself a reward for what I had done.  I got myself a Grande, extra hot, non fat, 1/4 sweet (1pump of syrup) peppermint white chocolate mocha with no whip and no drizzle.  I love me a white chocolate mocha.  This drink is how I got my gold Starbucks card automatically :)

Thankfully the rain held off until we headed home.  A little while later, I headed out to do some errands for my parents.  It took me a few hours to get everything done, and when I got home I was honestly tired.  A quick look at my pedometer and I knew why!

Wahoo!  I guess I beat my 18,000 steps on a non work day!  Now that's what I call a productive Saturday!

Sunday March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day.  I had a great time meeting up with some girlfriends last night for our version of St. Patrick's day.  We haven't gotten together in quite a while so it was a great excuse to get together, wear green and eat green food!  Well mostly!  My dish was the Irish Stew, since I'm the only one of the five of us who can actually say she's Irish.  One friend brought a green salad, one a green bean dish, and then there was a green jelly cake, and the finale was pistachio death by chocolate.  It was strange sounding but it tasted really good.

This morning was our long walk day.  Angus and I geared up despite the threatening sky and headed out for our walk.  We did pretty good, we had a heck of a head wind for most of the walk, then the rain came and then once again the hail.  I baled with the hail.  The little pellets of ice smacking you in the face as you're trying to get through the head wind was just not fun!   I think Angus agreed as he kept looking up at me as if to say..."Hey Crazy Lady, call the male human and get us out of this mess!"  I had to agree so I called my awesome husband to come get us.  10 minutes later we were drying off with towels on our way to Starbucks for some warm tea.  What a great way to get warm after a cold walk.  The down side was we only got in a little over 3km's and I was little disappointed as I wanted to get in at least 5km today.  Oh well. 

There was a White Caps FC event at the White caps store in Metrotown today and as my hubby is a huge White cap's fan ( we worked it into our budget for him to get a seasons ticket this year) we headed out to Burnaby so he could meet a couple of the players.    I saw that Lulu Lemon was across the mall and down a little bit so I decided to go in and check to see if they still had their ear warmers.  My hubby got me a couple a few years back as my ears freeze when I'm walking but for the life of me I couldn't find them this morning.

I've never been in their store before and I have to say, I've heard a lot of good things about Lulu Lemon, but for me, honestly, it wasn't the best experience in the world.  Maybe because it's a store designed for the fit person but really, there should be something that even us larger ladies should be able to get.  Considering the way their sales person looked at me as I walked into the store, I didn't even bother to look at the clothing section.  When I asked her if they had any cold weather gear like running gloves or ear muffs she rolled her eyes at me and said they only carry that kind of thing in September.  All right, it's March, and yes it should be spring but it's still freezing cold out.  As I turned to leave I saw that they had some headbands on the wall over by the cash register so I made my way over to look at them, thinking they may be of use.  I found a wide band headband that I thought may work and then I saw the arm warmers.  I haven't seen them before up close, I've seen them in the walking and running magazines I've glanced at over the years, but considering how the wind went through my jacket and shirt on my walk this morning I thought what the heck so I picked them up as well.  Sizing was again an issue, the largest size they carry are the med/large.  I figured they would still work.  I did ask about their exchange policy when I was buying them just in case I couldn't use them; but just looking at them I thought they may work.  I'll have to let you know about them when I actually get a chance to try them out.

When my hubby and I got home from Metrotown and had dinner it was still light out so I figured what the heck, instead of sitting around watching TV I would head out for a walk and hopefully I could get in the extra 2km's before it got dark out.  Angus was not in the mood for another walk, so I left him behind and headed down to walk around the park and back.  I misjudged how light it actually was by the time I got to the park I was a little nervous to walk all the way around it as I didn't have a flashlight with me.  I took a short cut and went back up to the road, where low and behold my husband came along looking for me.  I'd been gone just over half and hour and he knew it was getting to dark to be walking up the side of the road in the dark.  I have the best hubby ever!  Not only did I get a second walk in but I walked a little over 6km's today. Wahoo!  Total steps today 17418!

Saturday March 16th

All right so we're almost caught up.  Two more posts about last week and I'll give you  the posts for this week. I  promise.  Being without a computer has been such a pain.

Saturday was certainly a get our grove on and walk kind of day!  Saturday morning I took my husband up to drop his car off at the mechanics he needed to get his brakes done so we figure why not take the dog and get in our walk during the "wait".  We dropped his car off at 8am and headed out for a walk. I had plotted out a route for us to follow as we don't live down that end of town, I didn't want us going down cul de sac's etc.  My big worry is unleashed dogs.   Angus is a fussy little dog, some days he's fine with other dogs and other's not so much.  He would never go after another dog, but he is a barker, so if the other dog objects the fight is usually on with me inbetween the two (I've learned from experience).   We headed out on our walk and we did pretty good.  There was one section on the Discovery trail that I wanted us to do as it will be a part of the Abbotsford Police Challenge 5k that we're signed up for.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize how many people would have their dogs off their leashes in the park, at the soccer fields and on the trail so we ended up cutting through a cat walk (do they still call them that, the fenced in paths that go between two houses and pop you out on a street somewhere?) and onto a street that took us back to the main road.  We ended up walking along finding our way and we did pretty good.  It took us just over an hour and we did 4.5km's.  A little slow for me, but I'm not sure if it was because I didn't have my music going to keep tempo with, or the fact that my husband and I were talking as we walked.  Needless to say.  We had great quality time together with the occasional funny moment as Angus discovered new scents and new ways to walk along the retaining walls sidewalk.

The car wasn't ready when we got back to the mechanics so home we went to drop off Angus and then continue on our weekly chores.  One of the chores that we needed to do was go down to the grocery store near our house for some basics like milk and bread.  However once we were finished with Costco, we were both tired and honestly I just wanted to sit with my heating pad for a while so we decided to by pass the grocery store.

A couple of hours later, I realized that we needed milk, it still wasn't raining out (although it was threatening). So I grabbed an umbrealla, a bag and decided to walk to the store to pick up the bits and pieces that we needed.  It seemed like a good idea and I'm grateful for the extra 2.4ish kilometers I got in but let me tell you.  A carton of milk, being carried all uphill, ends up feeling like a gallon!

All in all, I clocked in almost 7km's and that made me very very happy!

Sunday March 12th

On Sunday morning's my husband and I have a tradition that after he comes home from Spin Class at the gym, and I walk the dog, that we have brunch and then we head to Tim Horton's for him, and Starbucks for me.  Lucky for us they are across the street from each other down near the Costco.

I was so happy with how far we went on our walk yesterday that I told my husband instead of driving to the Starbucks, I would walk Angus(the dog) down and he could pick us up.  According to Map my walk, that would be almost 7km's for us to do and I thought 90 Minutes or so would do it. 

My hubby headed to the gym and I was just getting ready to head out when he called to tell me that it was pouring rain at the other end of town and he would prefer that we not go along the country road in the pouring rain.  I agreed, as you can tell from the picture I posted yesterday there is no shoulder or sidewalk, and barely any room between the road and the ditch.   People drive at a fairly quick speed along there and add in the rain, they may not see us in time.  It bothers me a little bit and I always walk against traffic so I can see what's coming at us, and yesterday even on a clear sunny day there were a few cars that stayed far too close to us in my opinion.

Instead we headed around our neighbourhood.  I still wanted to walk for 90 minutes so we headed up the Whatcom road hill, crossed over and came back down, went around the long block to the park, up part of the Marshall road hill, back down to the park and then home again, all in all we did a little over 6km in 1 hour and 26 minutes.

I was pretty happy with that, considering we tackled quite a few major hills in our area.  I do have to start carrying water with us on these long walks though.  Both Angus and I gulped down water when we got home, and it wasn't warm out, it was cold and rainy.  I'm happy with our walks right now.  So far on the weekends we're averaging just over 5km per day. 

Really? I can't get a break?

Sunday dawned and it seemed like the rain had passed, it was cloudy out but no rain in site!  Happy dance, happy dance, after only getting about 8900 steps in on Saturday (well below the goal of 12,000) I just wanted to get moving!  I also wanted to get Angus moving! When we had him to the vet's for his check up in December he was labelled as "obese" we were told that the 5 extra pounds on him was the equivalent of 50 on a human.  So we cut back his food, cut down the number of timbits treats he gets and he's getting in the long walks with me on the weekends ( he gets shorter walks through the week).  So we get ready for our walk. I bundle up with scarf and gloves, no umbrella as it's sunny, my ipod and we're off.  We got to the bottom of the hill and while waiting for the light to change felt a few rain drops.  I look up...the sky is still blue, clear but there are some dark clouds on the horizon.  We head across the street, and up onto the freeway overpass to get to where I want us to be walking on this fine day and low and behold as get to the next light we're getting rained on.  No umbrella, the blue sky behind us and a dark cloud right above us, at this point the wind picks up so now as we start walking down the country road it's windy, raining and now...glory of all glories...comes the hail.  Yes hail! Luckily it was just a really quick blast of freezing cold hail but looking at my poor dog you'd think I was torturing him.  His head was hanging so low that I swear his nose was touching the ground.  Look across the freeway to where we've just come from and what do I see?

Blue clouds over our house, and nothing but rain clouds heading for us!

None the less we kept on plugging, turned around at the golf course and headed back towards home.  Once we passed over the freeway we were again in the land of blue skies and sunshine.  It was easy to keep going along our walk and we actually enjoyed the morning.  By the time we made it back past the conference centre (the building in the picture above) Angus was quite happy to slow down and smell some boulders.  He does this so that he gets a break from walking and I can assure you he stopped at every boulder along the confrence centre, as well as every bench and bus stop.

All in all it was a great walk,   5.06Km's in 1:11:26.  I'm happy with that, my goal is get under 1 hour for a 5km walk.

Overcoming mean spirited people

Friday had a couple of bumpy parts of the day for me but I came out on top and that's what counts right!  I had to drive in to work as I had an event I was volunteering for and the train simply wouldn't get me home in time for my volunteer shift.  The drive in was horrendous as the "Pineapple Express" came ashore full force, I could barely see 20 feet in front of me between the rain and all the spray.  I made it to work with plenty of time to spare before my 830am meeting. 

I had meetings all morning and quickly bundled up and headed out to my Weight Watchers meeting at noon.  The rain was still coming down sideways and as I had a 1pm meeting I wasn't going to be able to stay for the meeting, nor get my whole lunch time walk in.  WW was busy as always, there are about 100 people who attend the meeting and after working my way through the line up I was really disappointed to find I had only lost 2oz.  2oz!!! Are you frigging kidding me, that's a drink of water!  I was so upset when I left the meeting, although my leader tried to put a positive spin on it for me.  I've lost 27 pounds in 7 weeks, my body needs my weight loss to slow down so it can catch up  But still!  2oz! 

I bundled back up and headed back out into the torrential down pour, beating myself up for such a low loss and was halfway back to work when a man walking towards me walked right into me! Not a gently bump but a WHAM right into me.   Not a polite oops, sorry let me help you get your umbrella back.    Instead he screams at me "I blame you for this!  If you weren't so f***ing fat this wouldn't have happened".  I was stunned!  I was speechless, I heard several people gasp as he's screaming at the top of his lungs at me and I didn't know what to do.  I  was mortified as tears started streaming down my face (yes as my husband will attest, it doesn't take much to make me cry).  By the time I got back to my office I had calmed down but I was still feeling really horrible about the whole incident.  I quickly wolfed down my lunch and hurried to my next meeting, hoping beyond hope that my nose was no longer red and my eyes weren't still watery. 

I was proud of how I handled it.  In the past that sort of comment would have thrown me for a loop, I would have started eating anything and everything I could get my hands on.  Instead, I ate my lunch, went to my meeting and then headed home to do my volunteer shift. 

I parked my car a couple blocks away from the event so I could get my steps in (steps I was short on because 1. I drove to work instead of training it which means I was missing 4500 steps right out the door) 2. I didn't get my lunch time walk in, another 4500-5500 step loss.)  I was really happy though as I walked and walked and walked doing my volunteer shift.  When I arrived I only had 3600 steps on my pedometer.  When I got home I had19,026!  I blew my 12,000 step per day goal right out of the water!  That's one way to overcome the mean spirited people we literally run into every day!

Holy Rain much????

I know I live on the "Wet Coast" but holy rain batman!  It's been raining pretty much since 8am this morning, and not just a light little sprinkle but a downpour most of the day.  I gave my umbrella to a train buddy this morning as she forgot her's and had several meetings she had to walk to in downtown and at that point it wasn't yet raining.  I knew I had another one in my desk drawer so I didn't think it was that big a deal.  Until the train pulled into the station, I got off the train and as I was walking to the escalator the heavens opened.  With no umbrella I decided to cheat and take the skytrain to work.  I can walk to work from the train station in about 14 minutes, the sky train takes bout 8 minutes, not much of a time savings but the pay off is the time spent outdoors.  The skytrain station I get off at is underground and when I get off and walk through the underground mall, I literally pop out across the street from my work buildings back door.  Nice and easy for when you don't want to arrive at work looking like  a drenched rat!

I've challenged myself to get out of my office and walk for at lest 30 minutes each day on my lunch.  I really, really, really debated doing it today.  It seemed like every time I looked out my office window, the rain was coming down sideways.  I'd look down onto the street (I'm on the 3rd floor) the water was running down the street.  I finally decided to heck with it, a little rain never hurt anyone right?  Right?  Well now it didn't hurt but I was soaken wet, and cold when I got back to the office from my walk. My umbrella was soaked, my jacket was soaked and my shoes were squelching there was so much water in them.  But I walked, for 32 minutes, I got up off of my chair and moved my body! 

When it came time to come home and I put my runners back on they were still quite wet so I figured what the heck, my feet are already wet and I need to get my daily steps in so I walked down to the train station.  Even with my umbrella I was a drowned rat by the time I got to the train.  The rain even affected my commute home as the train had to crawl along the tracks at a couple of places due to issues with the tracks.  I got into my home station cold, wet and hungry.  I decided to bypass my usual Thursday night gym workout and just go home I was feeling so miserable.

I got home and was starting to feel guilty about not going to the gym when I realized I had a workout at home I could do.  A few weeks ago at Costco I bought a kickboxing/killer abs dvd set and I hadn't yet cracked it open.  It's 1 20 minute workout so I could easily fit it in while dinner cooked.  I'm so glad I did!  I had such a good workout from it.  A much better choice then sitting on my butt on the coach feeling guilty.  Yeah for healthy choices!!!!